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J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 



HAZAEL; 



NEW YORK: Iso. 59 CHAMBERS STREET. 

BOSTOI^: No. 9 CORNHTLL ...CINCINNATI: 41 WEST FOURTH ST, 

LOUISVILLE: No. 103 FOURTH ST. 



HAZAEL; 



OR, 



KNOW THYSELF. 



By KEV. a. F. DICKSON, 

CHARLESTON, S. C. 



.^A' 1867 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

316 CHESTNUT ST., PHILADELPHIA. 

KEW YORK: No. 59 CHAMBERS STREET. 

BOSTON: No. 9 CORXHTLL ...CINCINNATI: 41 WEST FOURTH ST. 

LOUISVILLE: No. 103 FOURTH ST. 






Entered accoi'ding to Act of Congress^ in the year 1857, by the 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 

Pennsylvania. 



J§^ No hooks are published by the American Sunday-School Union 
vjithout the sanction of the Committee of Publication, consisting of four' 
teen members, from the following de7iominations of Christians, viz. Bap- 
tist, Methodist, Congregational, Episcopal, PresbyteHan, Lutheran, and 
Reformed Dutch. Not more than three of tJie members can be of the same 
denomination, and no book can be published to which any member oftht 
Committee shaU dbjed^ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



PA(?R 



Hazael the Syrian 5 

CHAPTER II. 
God or Baal? 24 

CHAPTER III. 

The Half-way Christian 42 

CHAPTER IV. 
Be Ready 57 

CHAPTER V. 
Despisest Thou? 72 

CHAPTER VI. 

Hardening the Heart 88 



CHAPTER I. 

HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 

Setting sail from CoDstantinople^ threading our 
way among the thousand isles of the Archipelago, 
running along the green hill-sides of Cyprus, with 
our faces to the rising sun, let us land at that illus- 
trious but miserable village of fishermen^ once queen 
of the sea and mother of merchant princes, — Tyre. 
Having made our preparations for a land-journey, we 
cut across the low and rocky hills to the north, and 
ascend gradually as we go, until we find ourselves 
suddenly upon the edge of a precipice at whose base 
the famous river Leontes rushes onward to the sea. 

Barren rocks surround us, with here and there a 

clump of cedars or a wild olive-tree; but the river 

below us is set in an enamelled frame of green and 

red; oleanders, pomegranates, and other flowering 

shrubs crowd along its brink, drink in its freshness 

and repay it with perfume. 

Slowly we wind on and up, keeping and even in- 
1* 5 



6 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



creasing our height above the river^ till it makes 
but a faint murmur a thousand feet below us. Just 
where the valley of Lebanon begins to widen out of 
this wild pass and admit of cultivation^ we turn our 
backs upon it. As so often happens in life^ in 
labouring at one thing we have accomplished an- 
other: while keeping our place near the Leontes^ 
we have climbed half the height of the Eastern 
Lebanon and entered its defiles. A fresher and 
more fragrant air begins to blow upon us; the tired 
horses mend their pace; the guides' songs grow 
heartier. At last they run forward^ call us on with 
wild shoutSj point through a sudden cleft in the rock 
to the plains below^ and cry^ ^^ Behold Damascus V' 

^^The city^ surrounded by its ramparts of black 
and yellow marble^ flanked by its innumerable 
square towers^ commanded by its forest of minarets 
of every form^ and intersected by the seven branches 
of its river and numberless streams^ extended as far 
as the eye could reach. It was a labyrinth of gar- 
dens and flowers, thrusting its suburbs here and 
there in the vast plain, encircled by a forest of thirty 
miles in circumference, and everywhere shaded by 
groves of sycamores and trees of every form and 
hue. Our eyes were bewildered, and only turned 
from one enchantment to fix on another. 

^^The vast and fruitful plain; the mystic frame- 
work of the mountains; the glittering lakes which 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



reflect the heaven upon the earth; its geographical 
situation between the seas ^and among the deserts;' 
the perfection of the climate : every thing indicates 
that Damascus has at least been one of the first 
towns that were ever built by the children of men, — 
one of the natural halts of fugitive humanity in 
primeval times. '^* 

Damascus is, and for ages has been, the boast 
and wonder of the desert-world, teeming with manu- 
factures, princely in commerce. No city now in- 
habited is known to equal it in age; none in 
Western Asia can vie with it for population. For 
beauty of situation, for intelligence and industry 
of the people, for architecture, for wealth, for dis- 
play of magnificence in private life, it is unique 
among Eastern cities, — a very queen among the 
nations. Like all Oriental cities, the houses of Da- 
mascus are built with a blind wall upon the street, 
pierced by a single gateway ; but; if you enter there, 
it is to be enchanted among scenes which we are 
apt to think can only be found in Persian or Arab 
fable. Fountains, piazzas, statues, columns, tropical 
shrubs and trees, walks paved with rich mosaic, gild- 
ing and carved work, lavish illusion and dream upon 
you, and banish thought of the bigotry, oppression, 
and miserable vice, which dwell without. 

'^' Lamartine. 



8 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



Damascus is the capital of one large province of 
the vast country called Syria, — a country whose 
southern border touched the land of Palestine, 
whence it stretched northward indefinitely five or 
six hundred miles. It was broken up into many 
petty principalities, which were sometimes fused 
into kingdoms, and then fell apart again when the 
temporary bond, whatever it was, was broken. 
Syria of Damascus, as it was called, was the richest 
and most powerful division of Syria, — rich in its own 
resources, powerful in the sway it held over all the 
neighbouring provinces. At the time of which I 
am to speak, Benhadad II. reigned in Damascus, 
the regular descendant and lawful heir of him who 
• restored its independence after the conquest by 
David, narrated in 2 Sam. viii. Thirty and two 
kings were subject to him; and nowhere, nearer 
than Assyria, was there a monarch he need fear. 
Only the interference of God saved the Israelites 
and Jews from his power; thrice He discomfited him 
and drove him back when all human help was vain. 

It was after this third defeat that Hazael appeared 
upon the stage, whose history, so far as we have it 
in the Scriptures, I propose to recall for the sake 
of some lessons that may be drawn from it. It 
parts naturally into three periods : — his life before 
his interview with Elisha, that interview itself, and 
the followino; events. 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 9 



We find Hazael an attendant on the king of 
Syria and a confidential servant, and, therefore, 
according to the habits of the East, a man of power, 
a kind of menial minister of state. If he had been 
a relative of Benhadad, the custom of all chroniclers 
in those days assures us it would have been men- 
tioned; but there is not a trace of any claim he had 
to eminence except the favour of his king. No 
doubt he had been raised from the ordinary estate 
of life there, had been found useful, and rewarded 
for his services. 

And, though this may seem a thing incredible to 
us, it is a very common occurrence in Oriental des- 
potisms. The queen and prime minister of Peter 
the Great of Russia both rose from among the popu- 
lace. Mohammed Pacha, tyrant of Egypt, whose 
threatening power overshadowed Constantinople and 
filled the hearts of its inhabitants with fear, was an 
Arab undistinguished for birth or wealth till he 
won the latter and made the other needless by his 
ferocious courage and robberly skill. Then he sold 
his services to the patron of all robbers in Turkey, — 
the sultan, — till he achieved Egypt and indepen- 
dence. Indeed, the spirit of those despotisms is 
hostile to any hereditary claims of power and noble 
rank except in the monarch himself. 

The door of preferment and fame was thus open to 
all the young men of Syria; and among these some 



10 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



quality distinguished Hazael. What it was we are 
not explicitly informed; but his subsequent history 
and the character of his master leave no doubt that 
his first pre-eminence was in war. Courage, energy, 
personal strength^ military combination, pointed him 
out as fit to be captain in the king's host. Thus 
brought near the king himself, other qualities were 
seen in him and appreciated; he became 2^ favourite ^ 
and showed himself not unworthy of the kindness 
done him. So he was advanced to the position of 
confidential oJSicer and household companion, — the 
last position of eminence below the level of the 
throne. He was not only intrusted with important 
duties and powers and sent as the king's own repre- 
sentative on such afiairs as the message to Elisha, 
but, as the history shows, he was allowed to remain 
in Benhadad's private apartment alone with him. 
He had thus earned the utmost confidence of the 
king; all that was required in a royal favourite — a 
good general, a chief ruler, a confidential friend — had 
been found in him. Hazael, therefore, was a man 
of many virtues. 

Now, does anybody demur to this, and exclaim 
against such a prostitution of the noble name virtue 
as giving it to the good qualities of a man who after- 
wards proved himself a traitor, murderer, and tyrant? 
But, I ask, are not energy, personal daring, lavish 
generosity, intellectual strength, faithfulness in ser- 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 11 



vice, industry and honourable feelings, — are not these 
counted virtues to-day and among ourselves ? And 
what is the matter with Syria, that they should not 
be virtues there ? But do you say that HazaeFs 
conduct afterwards vitiates all these things and 
proves that in him, at least, they were not virtues? 
Then I ask if you are not applying to him a test 
you would refuse for yourself ? Do we wait till peo- 
ple die, before we decide whether their generosity, 
courage, and industry, are virtues or not ? 

But perhaps you will say, '^ We see now what 
all his sacrifices, toils, and risks, were meant for; 
he was just working his way up to the crown/' 
Were all his excellencies superficial and hollow, 
because you think you detect a selfish purpose under 
them ? I am afraid you are as uncharitable as 
ministers in their preaching, or even the Bible 
itself. Why may not the evil purpose have sprung 
up late in life ? Here is a man, — a heathen, too, and 
labouring under many disadvantages which you and 
I know nothing about, — frank, generous, brave, risk- 
ing his life, time and again, to swell the greatness 
of his country and consolidate the power of his 
king : why may he not be an unselfish, devoted 
patriot? Why not believe that he cared nothing 
for power or fame ? — in truth, was very unwilling to 
reign, but felt himself constrained by the necessities 
of the times, and sacrificed his comforts, his plans, 



12 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



and Ms friendsliip^ to the good of liis fellow- 
men? 

Do you exclaim, ^^ Impossible ! this wicked world 
does not produce such characters; men here set aside 
the welfare of others to make way for their own. 
Hazael must have been selfish and hard-hearted all 
along'^? Is that your feeling? Why, so says the 
Bible of us all: — ^^They go astray as soon as they 
are born -^ (Ps. Iviii. 3 ;) ''Hlie Scripture hath con- 
eluded all under sin:'^ Gal. iii. 22. 

Do you say there is a deep moral consistency in 
man's character and heart, so that, whenever an 
unequivocal display of it is made, you are entitled 
to read his life backwards and interpret all by that? 
And what if God should read our lives backwards 
and interpret the graces and virtues of to-day by 
the evil unveiled in us at the judgment ? 

Will you say now, ^^No doubt, if we knew more 
of HazaeFs life, we should detect many crimes and 
vices in it'' ? I answer, his character was high, and 
his confidence in it strong. ^^Is thy servant a dog, 
to do this thing" ? Does he speak like a craven 
and a self-convicted villain ? But, suppose it were 
so, as without question it was : which of us could 
invite that test of our virtue ? Whose secret his- 
tory would bear perfect exposure? Who could see 
every thought and feeling and silent purpose and 
hasty deed laid bare without shame ? 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 13 



What can be said for sinners now that cannot be 
said for Hazael, except this one thing, — that his 
exposure came in this life? Are they loved and 
trusted? So was he. Have they fine and noble 
qualities? So had he. Have they wrought out 
great results for others? So had he. Do they 
love their good name? So did he. Are they 
strong in good resolutions? So was he. Do you 
resent this comparison with such a man ? It shall 
be withdrawn, at once and forever, if you will prove 
any other substantial difference than that I have 
named. Meanwhile, remember that the standard 
by which his crimes and our characters are to be 
judged is not the gross appearance, but the secret 
motive and the disobedience of heart. Will it be 
strange if human judgments are there reversed ? — if 
Hazael takes rank above the Pharisee, and the 
criminal condemns the judge ? 

We come now to HazaeFs interview with Elisha. 

The daring king Benhadad, who had attempted the 

life of the prophet a few years before, not only in 

despite of his supernatural gifts, but even because of 

them, — because God had shown him what the king 

of Syria meant to do and he had declared it to the 

king of Israel, — this audacious king, like many other 

such, lost courage when he was sick. He sent to 

his old enemy, the prophet, who was even then in 
2 



14 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



Damascus at the command of God^ to know if he 
should recover; and Ms messenger was this same 
Hazael. It was an impressive scene. 

Elisha^ as a traveller and foreigner, lodged, no 
doubt, at the khan or caravanserai, which in Eastern 
countries takes the place of our inns. A foot- 
traveller, and having no merchandise to occupy 
room, he may well have been crowded back and 
concealed in the throng that gathers in such a 
place. But, like his master in later days, ^^he 
could not be hid;'^ and the procession of horsemen^ 
followed by forty camels bearing the king's present, 
entered the central court, sought him out, and paid 
the tribute of paganism to the mighty Grod of Israel. 

Then followed a conference, probably a private 
one, between the prophet and the prince. ^^Thy 
son Benhadad, king of Syria, hath sent me to thee, 
saying. Shall I recover of this disease ?^^ And 
Elisha answered, '' Go say unto him. Thou mayest 
certainly recover; howbeit,'^ he adds to Hazael, "the 
Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die.^^ 
And he gazed significantly and steadily upon the 
traitor's face, showing him that his inmost secret 
thought was known. Then, when his manifest con- 
fusion brought full proof of his guilty purpose, the 
man of God wept, foreseeing the disasters that would 
fall on Israel from his iron hand. 

Now, mark, this resolute traitor and assassin, self- 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 15 



convicted and asliamed wlien the crime he has de- 
termined to commit is referred to, grows indignant 
as any man of honour when other deeds are pre- 
dicted of him. He dares not deny that he will slay 
his benefactor in his sleep; but that he will war 
with the Jews, sack their cities, and crush their peo- 
ple I — oh, horrible ! Is he a dog, that he should 
do this thing? The blacker villany he owns to 
himself, and denies not to the prophet; but its 
accessory and certain consequence he vows shall 
never come. 

Must he not have practised some gross fraud 
upon himself in this matter ? By what arguments 
he had justified himself in his own eyes for resolv- 
ing to take his sovereign's life we are not informed. 
Perhaps he accused Benhadad, in his thoughts, 
of being too prodigal of his people's wealth and 
blood, and imagined it was due to his country to 
end so dangerous a life. This would suit well with 
his resenting the charge of war and cruelty made 
by the prophet. But then, must he not have 
thought, ^^ Though all the tribes, and the army 
itself, should rise against him, yet could not I, his 
servant and friend, who owe every thing to hij= 
hand" ? But perhaps he saw that his day of power 
was waning ; that his pre-eminence was already dis- 
puted by some new favourite, and would soon be 
over; perhaps, spoiled child of fortune as he was, 



16 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



he fancied himself slighted or wronged, and entitled 
to revenge. At any pate, he had conjured up some 
strong arguments, which, though they could not 
keep him from being ^^ ashamed'^ before Elisha, yet, 
conned over and enlarged upon by a fierce and eager 
heart, prepared him to do murder on the morrow. 
Thus the great crime, black ingratitude and 
treachery, looked trifling to him, while its inevitable 
consequence seemed monstrous and impossible. 

And are there no Hazaels in these days? Not 
in the specific crime, but in the wonderful self-de- 
lusion. Do we not every day see men thrown by 
their passions, or, by the swift treachery of evil habit 
into crime which, beforehand, they would have re- 
coiled from as indignantly as Hazael ? 

But the chief point is not the risk of these 
offences, great though that be. It is this: — these 
smaller transgressions are involved in a greater 
crime, which has been committed by every impeni- 
tent sinner; yet he forgets that or sees little of it, 
while he feels shame or indignation at the mention 
of the others. We, too, have a Benefactor, — a 
friend of almost incredible love and faithfulness. 
^^ Scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet, 
peradventure, for a good man, some would even dare 
to die; but God commendeth Ms love towards us, 
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
us.'^ How, impenitent reader^ how have you treated 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 17 



tliat dear Friend? Have jou not practically dis- 
owned him? Have you not continually disobeyed 
him ? If all his subjects were like you, would he 
not be virtually dethroned ? If he were to appear, — 
I cannot say, to come, for he is here ! — if he were 
to appear and say, Where is mine honour with thee ? 
what could you answer him? He has offered you 
royal bounties and his own home; and you have 
deigned him no other answer than is found in the 
conduct which rejects his offer. Thus have you in- 
sulted and rebelled against the mighty King of 
heaven, your patient Benefactor, your self-sacri- 
ficing Redeemer! An act of cruelty, of revenge, 
of dishonesty, is shameful, no doubt; but how does 
it compare for malignity with this sin of sins ? 

Has it had its proper share of your remorse? 
Has the thought of this supreme offence, ungodli- 
ness, taken the first rank among your regretful 
thoughts and deepened them into repentance ? Or 
do you receive the accusation of it carelessly and 
reserve your feeling for other charges? Hazael no 
doubt said to himself, ^^I have resolved to kill my 
kind master and lawful king; I am a traitor; I shall 
be a murderer : but I have not invaded Israel, nor 
slain her women in the streets. ^^ And he found 
comfort in the thought. And just so sinners say, 
^^True, I am an outlaw as regards God; I disobey 

him incessantly; I reject his offers; I grieve his 

2* 



18 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



Spirit; 1 dishonour his Son who died for me: but 
then I am an honest man and a good citizen/^ And 
they find comfort in that thought ! 

Let us now consider the events in HazaeFs life 
that followed his interview with Elisha. He perse- 
vered in his faithlessness and murder, no more 
driven from his sin than men are now by the 
thought, ^^Thou, God, seest me !'^ He was as accom- 
plished in resisting heaven^ s warnings and hardening 
his heart as sinners are to-day; and no more. 

It was noon; and the king slept heavily, as sick 
men sleep, in his palace of Damascus. No eye was 
on him but the cruel eye of' his servant and the 
vigilant eye of God. Neither his present helpless- 
ness nor his past kindnesses could move Hazael's 
heart of stone; care for man and fear of God were 
nought against envy, malice, and ambition. ^^And 
it came to pass that he took a thick cloth and dipped 
it in water and spread it on his face.^^ Without 
a warning or a prayer Benhadad went from the 
embrace of sleep to the agony of death. Hazaei 
''murdered sleep,^^ and reigned in the king's stead. 

Having consolidated his power in the few following 
years, Hazaei stretched forth his hand to vex Israel 
and Judah. He was bought off once by Jehoash at 
enormous cost; but soon afterwards, for their sins, 
the people of Israel were given into his hands, 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 19 



and he oppressed them all his days, according to the 
word of the Lord. But the central point of this 
last division of his life is, that he met no punish- 
ment in this life for any of his crimes. He was 
victorious in war; he kept the conquered nations 
ander him to the last; he founded a dynasty, and 
transmitted an unbroken power to his son; and he 
died quietly in his bed. 

Now the question arises, and to ill have an answer. 
Does God govern the world upon a system, or not ? 
Is it mere hap-hazard and blind chance whether an 
offender against all law is condemned and executed, 
or not? Can you and I, allowing for and excepting 
accidental disasters in this life, live as we list here, 
defy eternal justice, and dwell in heaven forever in 
spite of it? Say what you will of remorse and the 
pains of an accusing conscience, of which there is 
not a trace in the history, no man in his senses will 
affirm that such complicated crimes were atoned for 
by a run of almost unexampled prosperity here and 
perfect impunity and everlasting blessedness here- 
after. 

Man instinctively recognises God as a Moral 
Governor. It is a necessity of his own spiritual 
nature ; and, though he may tremble at the thought 
when himself is the criminal; though, driven by 
love of sin and fear of woe, he may then deceive 
himself; only take him from the dock, and he in- 



20 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



terprets the law and gives the sentence in the very 
echo of God's thunder. 

^^Hazaer^ — says every man^s conscience and sense 
of right — ^^ Hazael has sinned and must die.'' Why ? 
Why ? perishing men, does it not chill your. very 
heart to think why his fate is so sure ? Because 
^^the soul that sinneth, it shall die." There is a 
God, — a being of principle and firm character; not 
a sentimental or capricious autocrat, but a king. 
The world beyond the grave is his, as this is; and 
what is not completed here will be finished there. 
Like the sea, which takes two continents in its arms, 
his purposes embrace two worlds and forever hem 
us in. Yea, though we take the wings of the morn- 
ing and flee upon them, at the last we shall be face 
to face with God the Lord ! 

There, what will plausible excuses avail us r 
What safety can we find, what plea offer, out of 
Christ? For it is not a short-lived, excited feeling 
we have to fear in him : it is the beauty of Jehovah's 
holiness, his unchangeable truth and justice. Dear 
reader, there is but one shelter from the iron terror 
of his wrath ; and that is his own love ! 

We see in this history that, in respect to moral 
character, the difference between sin and holiness is 
the only radical difference among men, and that ail 
other moral distinctions are superficial and vain. 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 21' 



Common sense and law agree in treating tliem^e/^- 
tiori or spirit of an action as the essence of it. If 
you try a forger^ it is for uttering such a note, 
knowing the same to he forged ; a murderer, you 
accuse him of killing such a man at the instigation 
of the devil and with malice aforethought. So it 
is the spirit of a good deed you honour in it. Sup- 
pose it were proved to everybody's conviction that 
Washington, in fighting for his country, was moved 
by no lofty, pious patriotism, but by the same 
passion which drove Arnold to betray it, — blind, 
mad reveno'e! Would another course of stone be 
laid upon his monument ? W^ould it not stand 
there, frustrate and dismantled, the monument of 
his shame ? Surely, then, surely, God, the Searcher 
of hearts, will judge by the spirit of our deeds — both 
of our offences and our virtues. If he find in the 
most trifling offence a deep-set, malignant, rebellious 
wilfulness, he will punish that^ and not the trivial 
instance of it. If he find in our boasted virtues no 
thought of him, but self-gratification and subser- 
vience to custom, he will scorn them as loorthless. 

But you will demand the proof, — and you have a 
right to it, — the proof that the difference between 
sin and holiness is a radical difference. It lies in 
the principle I have just laid down. The spirit of 
the two is radically different. Compare the worlds 
they monopolize and the beings in whom they are 



22 HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 



perfected : — angels with devils, saints in light with 
lost souls. In that dark world, §>elf reigns; no 
glorious Supreme bends every knee in adoration 
and melts every heart in love. In heaven, Love 
reigns ; not a thought or will rebels ; no murmur of 
opposition jars upon the mighty concord. 

In this imperfect and probationary world it is 
enough that the seminal principles are here; that 
they spring ^p and grow; that each, where it pre- 
vails, gradually crowds out the opposing principle 
and takes eternal possession of the heart. 

I do not wonder that impenitent men oppose and 
hate this doctrine : it is a most bitter and humiliating 
one. It says to every such man, " There is nothing 
in you that deserves to be called good. The vir- 
tues you take pride in may do for this poor world, 
where even they are rare ; but they are worth no- 
thing for any other. God takes no pleasure in the 
best of you ; while, among your neighbours and ser- 
vants, those you look down upon may be his dear 
children. More : if you will ever be forgiven^ you 
must cease to admire and rely upon these idle vani- 
ties and shows of goodness ; you must confess your 
terrible sinfulness, and trust in Christ alone. ^^ No 
doubt this cuts men's pride ; but is it true f I 
speak to your own knowledge and your own con- 
sciences ; IT IS TRUE. The Bible declares it, and 
the Bible is the word of God. 



HAZAEL THE SYRIAN. 23 



Will you risk your eternity on tlie question 
whether or not this principle is true ? I will. I 
do. I stake my hopes of heaven and infinite bliss 
on this : — " While we ivere yet sinners^ Christ died 
for us.^^ If you deny the doctrine, you stake your 
all upon its falseness. If you are no sinner, no 
Christ died for you, no Bible speaks to you, no 
heaven opens for you, no God forgives and calls and 
welcomes you. Will you have it so ? 

Will you stand up before men and angels and 
their God, and defy him to find out your sin and 
condemn you for it ? Will you say, ^^Come what 
will, — the last trumpet, the risen dead, the crushed 
and burning world, the Mighty Judge, — I am clear 
of guilt, I challenge a verdict'' ? Dare you? 

If not, oh turn and love the Lord your Rock 
to-day; cry aloud to Christ, your faithful Redeemer; 
put your trust in him, confessing your sins ! The 
strife, the agony, the peril, shall all be past, — fled 
away like a cloud ! 



24 GOD OR BAAL? 



CHAPTER II. 

GOD OR BAAL? 

(1 Kings xviii.) 

There could hardly be a more striking proof 
tlian this history affords of the truth so often 
asserted^ — that religion does not fear investigation. 
If there was a rival of Israel's God to be dreaded, — 
if there were claims upon man's reverence formida- 
ble enough to be kept studiously out of sight, — that 
rival was Baal and those claims were his. Begin- 
ning in Phenicia and sweeping north and south 
round the whole land of Palestine, the worship of 
Baal spread like a sea over the vast kingdoms of 
Asia. Assyria, Media, Persia, Babylon, all bowed 
before him. The most gorgeous trophies of war 
adorned his temples; the finest arts of peace were 
the handmaids of his magnificence; the greatest of 
earthly kings trembled with fear of his wrath, and 
the learning of the world was in the keeping of his 
priests. His generals, his armies, had conquered 
the nations, fighting in his name and offering in- 
cense to win his favour. The ^^ peculiar people'^ of 



GOD OR BAAL i 



Jeliovah had fallen before their prowess in war, and 
opened their traitorous hearts freely to take his 
kingdom in. 

Slowly and steadily his victory went on. The 
Temple in Zion was deserted ; the law almost lost 
from among men ; the single faithful prophet hunted 
through all lands, King Ahab taking an oath from 
every people that he was not among them ; while 
four hundred prophets of Baal sat at JezebeFs table, 
and four hundred and fifty held their filthy orgies 
in Jehovah's realm. 

So fast had the Mosaic religion faded from among 
men that God told Elijah, as a consolation , of the 
seven thousand out of all those millions who had not 
bowed the knee to Baal ! Victory had truly perched 
upon the banners of this terrible ^^lord:'^ a faith 
not strengthened by God would have shrunk from 
any comparison of Jehovah^ s claims with his, until 
the tide had somewhat turned. But Elijah flinched 
not; gathering together all Israel unto Carmel, he 
challenges them to decide freely who is the God, 
and to follow him. The issue of the contest we all 
know: the false god was defeated and disgraced, 
and his prophets slain. 

We are invited by it to a similar decision : it is 
the duty of every man to choose between the con- 
flicting claims of God and the world on his heart 

and life. 

3 



26 GOD OR BAAL? 



Here a question of importance arises at once : — In 
what sense can tlie sinner be said not to have de- 
cided ? To answer it^ let us look back to the case 
of Elijah. How could the Jews be described as 
^^ halting between two opinions/' when the whole 
nation^ from Dan to Beersheba, from king; to peasant^ 
was bowing the knee to Baal, and the Lord's prophet 
could find no rest for the sole of his foot ? 

Plainly, because some inconsistency in their con- 
duct or their feelings betrayed the incomplete- 
ness and crudeness of their views. There were fea- 
tures of the Jew in the life of the Gentile; proud 
nationalities, assuming the greatness of Jehovah, 
defaced by superstitious greediness after the empty 
favour or sensual rites of other gods; noble princi- 
ples, inherited only to be belied and nullified by the 
wicked customs they borrowed. In short, the Scrip- 
ture account of the later Samaritans applies to them 
also: — ^^They feared Jehovah, and served other 
gods :'^ 2 Kings xvii. 33. They remembered and 
reverenced the power of their own God, the God of 
Jacob, of Abraham, of Moses, Jehovah of hosts; 
but they craved the seducing idolatries of the 
pagans. 

It was plainly impossible to reconcile the two. If 
Baal, Moloch, and Ashteroth were worth a thought, — 
if they deserved an instant's respect or attention, a 
bowing of the head or a turning of the hand, — then 



GOD OR BAAL? 27 



Jehovali was no God at all, — not the equal of tlie 
poorest idol in their train. If the long procession 
of six hundred years, the willing captives of his 
power, bearing their inestimable tribute of miracle 
and prophecy to his feet, — if these were no true 
witnesses, then the gods of the heathen were gods, 
and He a vanquished usurper. Was he the all- 
seeing. Almighty Redeemer? then were they utterly 
false and evil, at once the creatures and the tyrants 
of man. 

Shutting their eyes hard against these plain 
truths, the children of Israel offended God with 
hollow worship, and betrayed their chosen patrons 
by their unsteady allegiance. They wore the chains 
of both, and kept the favour of neither. Their 
^^ halting,'^ then, lay in their attempting to combine 
the incompatible, — the service of God with bondage 
to idols. 

The indecision and inconsistency of the sinner, 
now, are not far to seek. 

It lies not in any uncertainty of knowledge in 
the matter; there is no wide or general difference 
of opinion as to the rightful claimant of man^s obe- 
dience and faith, the nature of the inducements 
offered us on either side, or the duty that devolves 
upon us all under the circumstances. On these 
points the impenitent not only do not plead igno- 
rance, but they would repel the charge indignantly 



28 GOD OR BAAL? 



if it were made. They boast as clear a knowledge 
as the Christian's who is the true God^ what law 
and what gospel he haS given^ and how men may 
be saved. Nay^ they prize it as a proud inheritance 
that they belong to a Christian nation^ — i.e. a nation 
which admits the supremacy of Jehovah and the 
truth of his word. They look down with a pity par- 
taking of contempt upon the most enlightened and 
philosophical of the pagans. 

Thus far^ then, the case is plain: not only is 
their knowledge abundant^ but it all tends one way ; 
the mind decides the whole question^ — admits the 
validity of God^s claim upon their love^andof Christ's 
upon their faith. 

Nor is it that the course of sinners' lives is not 
uniform and resolute. Just as clearly as the head 
has decided for Jehovah^ just so entirely has the 
heart chosen the god of this world. That fountain 
varies not* no alternation of sweet and bitter waters 
there ! Trace the sinner's life from the j&rst hour 
of moral action until now, and see if you can detect 
an ebb and flow in it, — even a temporary turning 
back of the flood. It changes in depth, in strength, 
in shade, but never in direction. 

Sometimes it flows calmly on, so cured of all its 
turbulence and mischief that the unthinking are 
cheated into pleasant hopes and admiration, not 
knowing that it is for lack of opposition, until 



GOD OR BAAL? 29 



IVovidence, or law, or some couflictiug passioD, 
throws a barrier across its bed : theu see how the 
waters toss and boil and roar till the overmountino- 
current sweeps headlong on its way again. Some- 
times it gathers in deep, dark, stagnant volume, as 
if to flow no more, only because it is so near its final 
level : sooner or later it must enter that restless, 
shoreless sea to which it has tended so long. But 
he sure of this } — only He who held back the Jordan 
when he overflowed all his banks till the waters stood 
up like a wall; only He who divided the E.ed Sea 
before the rod of Moses, can say to that tide of 
worldliness and self-will, ^^Turn back and serve 
me,'^ and be obeyed. We find the heart decided 
as well as the mind. 

But here we come upon the answer to our 
question : — These two decisions are direcfly contrary 
to each other, — can in no way be reconciled to- 
gether. The decision of the head is that God is 
the 3Iaker, Preserver, and King of all the earth; 
that of the heart is that self must be gratified and 
the world obeyed whatever he may claim. God 
declares his right to the whole afi'ection of the man, 
and to that more earnestly than to any other part 
of him; reason, conscience-bound, admits his right 
and reaffirms his claim, but the heart resolutely 
withholds the entire treasure from him. 

On the other hand, the will craves and insists on 
3* 



30 GOD OR BAAL? 



enjoying the pleasures of sin and self-indulgence; 
reason loudly and steadily proclaims that sin and 
self are bad masters^ — blind and foolish now, cruel 
and deadly at the last. The heart, and that slave 
of the heart, the life, put the highest value on good 
things attainable here, — pleasure, power, fame, 
wealth; experience and truth avow them to be short- 
lived, deceitful, and poisonous. -^ 

And, to make the inconsistency more glaring, the 
decision of the head works out into professions and 
conventional forms of one sort and another, while 
the heart's decision governs all that remains of life. 
The impenitent man comes to the house of God on 
the Sabbath; abstains, in part or wholly, from labour 
on that day; treats the minister of the gospel and 
the professing Christian with some respect ; speaks 
of his ^^esteem'^ for religion, his ^^ belief^ that the 
Bible is God's word, even his pleasure in hearing 
that sinners are converted. Why all these tokens 
of regard for God from men who shrink not from 
profanity or breaking the Sabbath by amusement, 
or who cast off fear and restrain prayer, or who at 
least, however externally moral they may be, are 
keeping back from Jehovah the Jiearts he demands? 
Why, I say, these tokens of regard for a system of re- 
ligion which, if their lives be in any wise conformed to 
truth and religion, must be utterly false and hollow, 
at once the idlest and most arrogant of impostures? 



GOD OR BAAL? 31 



Manifestly, there are two conflicting '^ thoughts'^ in 
such hearts, and they go '4ialtiug" between them. 

Another thing must be noted here. Neither of 
these decisions has been made with that deliberate- 
cess, that thorough and resolute courage, which the 
importance of the case demands. When God says, 
^' Choose ye,^' ^^Let us reason together,^^ he invites 
the whole man to the business, — he means no less 
than that the truth shall be earnestly sought, reso- 
lutely adhered to and obeyed. So momentous a 
question should never be decided by a; few heedless 
and hollow professions on one side and a sidelong, 
unconscious, unresisted bias on the other. No ; it 
behoves us to collect all our powers, to strip our- 
selves of every prejudice, to refuse attention to any 
temptation, to give earnest heed to all worthy evi- 
dence, and to stand up manfully for truth and right 
when the case is closed. 

Let me ask you now, impenitent reader, when 
you have ever treated the matter in this way ? Is 
Dot this, on the contrary, the very thing you have 
been staving off all your days, ever since the gos- 
pel was first preached to you,— a solemn, earnest, 
brave examination of your duty on the subject of 
religion ? When the truth began to grow pungent 
and awakenino' to you and your hearts were a little 
moved, did not your farm, or your merchandise, 
or some domestic affair, suddenly, engross your 



GOD OR baal: 



thoughts ? or some fault of minister or churcli-mem- 
ber, or some wrong done you by a neighbour, irri- 
tate you strangely? or politics or science acquire a 
new and wonderful importance in your eyes ? 

It iSj- therefore, not unfairly or without good 
grounds that I call urgently upon my impenitent 
readers to decide this question now for the first time. 

But why are we bound to decide it at all ? Why 
not let it alone ? Other and more pleasant matters 
invite us : why must this unwelcome theme be 
forced upon us ? 

In the first place, because such great interests 
depend on your decision. If mammon is the true 
God, then whatever reverence you feel for him whom 
the Bible calls God, whatever respect for ministers 
of the gospel, whatever pleasure in hearing that sin- 
ners, as we call them, are converted, is utterly mis- 
placed, — a waste of your best affections. Your 
precious hours spent in churches have been lost to 
you from their proper employment of pleasure or 
gain; the money bestowed on Sunday-schools, mi- 
nisters, missionaries. Bibles, is mere extravagance. 
The solemnity and fear that sometimes steal over 
you when you reflect that you are a transgressor of 
a holy law and a sinner against God's blessed 
gospel, — that fearful looking-for of fiery indignation 
which will not. down at your bidding, — is sheer super- 



GOD OR BAAL? 33 



stition. 2VII the vicious pleasure from wliich con- 
science or early instruction has kept you is so mucli 
clear loss, balanced by no advantage hereafter. 

But if Jehovah be God, then godliness is the 
only wisdom, having the promise of the life that 
now is, as well as of that which is to come : then vice 
and amiable sin are crimes, these are madness. 
Then the only hours that can be redeemed from de- 
struction and waste must be redeemed by thought 
and prayer and repentance^ — by faith, by charity, 
by holiness. Then all deviations from the life that 
pleases Grod are a loss lof the only things worth pos- 
sessing, — a clear conscience, a good hope, and his 
friendship. 

In the second place, whichever claimant of you 
is in the right will hold you. accountable in the end. 
Is it against the god of this world you are sinning.'' 
He will never forgive you the homage you daily do 
to a Being he would dishonour and dethrone. How 
his thorough -going subjects will revile your timid 
allegiance, that failed to get the good of either king- 
dom by temporizing with both ! 

But if it is Grod^s law you are breaking, — if he is 
king and you are a rebel against him, — then the Bible 
is tniey and woe, woe, woe, awaits you ! It is his 
labour, old as time, to make this dark world a para- 
dise, that you thwart. It is his earnest wish to make 
men righteous that light may fill the earth for them, 



34 GOD OR baal: 



which you deny him. It is his just right you with- 
hold from him, Almighty though he be; and, though 
you were the highest archangel, you must die the 
second death. If he is the Most High God, then 
it is perilling your eternal life to trifle with his 
jealousy an hour. 

Here, then, is abundant reason for deciding this 
question : your weightiest interests here are at stake ; 
and the rightful claimant of your heart, whoever he 
be, will hold you guilty if you neglect him. 

But you ask, ^^When mu^ we decide ?^^ Now. 
Not a day can you waste. In justice to the true 
Grod and to yourselves, you must choose now whom 
you will serve. 

In justice to yourselves. Every argument for de- 
ciding at all is a reason for instant action; for you 
know not that you will ever have another oppor- 
tunity. Every day brings you warnings that life is 
of all possessions the most precarious, that reason 
may be unseated and deposed, that some strong de- 
lusion may seize upon a man, which, whether it be 
ruin, as the Christian believes, depends upon the pre- 
vious question, ^^ Who is the true God?'' but which 
will forever prevent his deciding the question freely 
and fairly. Notice, too, that the least reflective of 
your two decisions, and therefore the most sus- 
picious one^ is the very one that always strengthens 



GOD OR BAAL? 35 



as life goes on; that is the one which effectually 
ripens into habit and shuts the other out from every 
thing but empty professions. 

Remember that life is full of deeds; that un- 
wearied memory is gathering up her stores of woe 
or glory every day; that, during these years of in- 
decision and ^' halting/^ either your professions are 
laying up shame for you^ or your life is a very 
treasury of remorse. Consider how your rightful 
sovereign must look upon this long delay in con- 
ceding what is his^ — your whole heart. Reflect that 
there is such a thing — your nature proves it, and 
your spirit cries out for it — as a high and perfect 
blessedness attainable on one system or the other, 
but not on both, and that you risk it all by every 
hour of delay. 

In justice to Him who has a right to reign over 
you, you must not put ofl* the decision. The great 
and blessed God has that right; and to refuse obe- 
dience is wrong, infinitely wrong. Think of all the 
Bible denunciations of sin, of Satan, of the course 
of this world, of impenitent men, and justify your- 
self, if you can, in your professions of respect for 
Scripture and religion if those charges are unjust. 
Look at the foul and bitter implications and prac- 
tical accusations on the other side, the acted asser- 
tions that God is a hard and unreasonable master 
and his service bondage, the unceasing mockery of 



36 GOD OR BAAL? 



his word; the bold profanation of his name on the 
lips of levitj; of vice, of wrath^ and ask yourself, in 
the name of common fairness and justice, whether, 
if he be sacred or good at all, he does not deserve 
instant vindication, homage and service at your 
hands ? 

Ought not He whose rights have been compro- 
mised, whose laws have been broken, whose authority 
has been despised, — ought not he to receive at once 
all the support of your voice and to be enthroned in 
your loyalty ? The language that the prophet of the 
Lord ad dressed ^to the perverse and backsliding chil- 
dren of Israel may be not less appropriately addressed 
to you : — 

^^A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: 
If then I be a father, where is mine honour? 
And if I be a master, where is my fear?"* 

A moment's reflection must convince you that yon 
have not rendered to God your Creator the honour 
which is his due, nor has his fear been in your heart 
and before your eyes. 

Nor can you take refuge from these arguments 
in your littleness and insignificance. You have no 
right to call your share in the matter unimportant, 
especially while you are living uniformly by one of 
the two systems, and that one of them which yout. 

'^- Malachi i. 6. 



GOD OR BAAL? 37 



intellect rejects and your professions denounce. 
Every spirit that lives has a right to your support 
if he is right, and ought to be opposed if he is 
wrong. Besides^ you are wielding a very powerful 
weapon on the side you practically sustain^ — your 
influence. Though it can compel none to follow you, 
it may be, and often is, the last weight in the 
balance, and decides the life, the death, the eternity 
of immortal souls. If it should prove, then, that 
your reason was right in condemning the system on 
which you live, your course will have been emi- 
nently unjust to others as well as ruinous to your- 
self; for you have decided the vacillating and 
encouraged the resolute in wrong, and you have 
enfeebled and tempted the right. And these con- 
sequences are rapidly slipping out of your hand; 
falling into that unchangeable world where they 
await you, where your fate will be sealed. 

Now we have reached the all-important ques- 
tion : — What shall be the grounds of our decision ? 
I answer, The fitness of either power to be our king, 
as shown by their history, their character and their 
purposes. 

On these points I have a right to draw upon your 
own knowledge for evidence. You know, then, that 
God made the world by a word, and that the riches 
4 



GOD OR BAAL? 



of liis miglit are boundless; that it spreads around 
you, pervading immensity, giving life to all, guiding 
tlie stars upon their courses, and holding all things 
in place by the overwhelming strength of his will; 
that, on the other hand, Satan is God's rival no- 
where but in the wicked heart of man, but is a 
rebel creature, as man is; that your sin, the more 
direct contestant with God for your heart, is only 
^elf^ and lives but by his sufferance. Which, then, 
can bless the universe, if he will ? — God, who made 
all things, and who showers all good things on 
you, — life, friends, reason, affections, a Saviour, a 
sanctifying Spirit, — or the ^^ servant of sin'^ ? 

You know that God's whole nature is told in one 
word, — Love. Love made the flying planets deck 
the sky, and furnished them with beauty as a home 
for his creatures. Love gave the life-blood to bound 
in your veins, and breathed the breath of life on all 
the angels. Love proclaimed that noble and holy 
law which bound the whole kingdom together and 
to its king with the golden links of purity, affec- 
tion, and peace. Love rose indignant on the throne 
of majesty when that law was broken and spurned, 
yet refused to slay us. Love came down in pity to 
the lost province, was made flesh, lived, prayed, 
died, for men! Love has built the new heavens 
and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, 
and has thrown wide the gates of everlasting bliss 



GOD OR BAAL? 39 



that the redeemed of the Lord may come in and live 
forever. 

ShaN I pause now to tell you the character of 
sin? How it tore one planet from its place in 
heaven and made it the gate of eternal woe ? 
How it poisoned the blood of man, and brought 
sickness and crime and death into his fair domain ? 
How it steeled the hearts of God's dearly-loved chil- 
dren against him, and sowed the seeds of discord, 
blasphemy, and despair? How it so maddened the 
hearts of the rebels that, when God would not slay, 
they have leaped in successive myriads the precipice 
of death into the bottomless pit? How — well may 
our hearts sicken at the recollection ! — How it seized 
Incarnate Love himself, and made us crucify our 
Saviour? How it has followed up that last remedy 
for man's ruin with remorseless enmity, blinding 
him to it with unbelief and pride, — yea, corrupting 
it with base inventions, and making it the very en- 
gine of death and hell ? 

You know, too, the purposes of each. You know 
that God would save you, that Satan would destroy 
yoUj that your own wicked heart would have its own 
way now and forget that there is a future. You 
know that God has read the whole story of youi 
ruin, the evil thoughts and passions, the enslaving 
habits strong as iron, the dreadful catalogue of your 
crimes against him, however blameless your life has 



40 GOD OR BAAL? 



been before men, and that bis justice must sbut you 
up in torment if you reject Christ; and you know bis 
desire is to rescue you from tbe wbole, to clear your 
beart of tbe evil already tbere, to take away tbe 
fountain of pollution that wells witbin you, to blot 
out your whole wicked life together, and to snatch 
you from the lake that burneth with quenchless fire. 
You know his palace is open to you, where the King 
of kings would seat you by bis side, where Jesus — 
tbe sinner's Friend, tbe Son of God — would be 
your friend forever. 

And what does sin oJffer you ? To give you your 
own way here and let you indulge your own fancies 
or your own passions. It offers to sing only pleasant 
songs in your ears and let you dream away life's fly- 
ing hours in peace. Dying man ! Can you be 
taken by such a snare? Can you have your own 
way against JehovaVs will ? Canyon enjoy one sin- 
ful pleasure except he grants it in wrath and judg- 
ment? Can the song of lying hope drown the 
thunder of bis fury, or the roarings of that fiery 
furnace? Can you sleep in peace here or in the 
grave when bis trumpet bids you wake ? And here- 
after! Sin makes you no promise for hereafter; 
only God's voice comes back from the prison of 
despair. Condemned immortal, listen to it! — ^^And 
I saw a great white throne, and him that sat^on it, 
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; 



GOD OR BAAL? 41 



and there was found no place for tliem. And I saw 
the dead, small and great; stand before God; and 
the books were opened: and another book was 
opened, which is the book of life : and the dead 
were judged out of those things which were written 
in the books, according to their works. And the 
sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death 
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them : 
and they were judged' every man according to their 
works. And death and hell were cast into the lake 
of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever 
was not found written in the book of life was cast 
into the lake of fire:'^ Eev. xx. 11-15. 

Choose ye, then, this day, whom ye will serve; 
for the time is short and the Judo;e is at hand. 



4* 



42 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 

There was a time wlien the contrast between the 
Christian and unbeliever stood out in strong relief 
and challenged the attention of the most thought- 
less; their general characters^ their conduct^ their 
social position and daily life, all forced the gospel on 
the sight of men, and made even the least Christian 
a ^^ living epistle.''^ It was the time when our religion 
began its progress through the world ; when its simple 
garb and unostentatious goodness rebuked the Pha- 
risee's phylacteries and trumpet-tongued charities; 
when the glory of a good heart shining from within 
faded all the beauties of his painted and varnished 
morality; when, on the other hand, the Christianas 
purity and truth exposed the pollutions of idolatry 
and the deadly fruit they bore; when envy and 
malice woke storms of persecution against the church 
that plagued and shook the world. It was the time 
when, to be a Christian, one could neither eat nor 
drink, marry nor give in marriage, retire to rest nor 
rise to the day's duties, toil nor live nor die like 
other people; when to become a Christian was to 



THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 43 



lose one's social rank, however humble it had been 
before, — to be rendered unfit to fill any social or 
civil position according to the customs of the age, — 
in a word, to be dropped out of the very fabric of 
society and to lie among the undistinguished rubbish 
on its pavement. 

That day, we know, has long passed away; the 
little leaven cast into the lump of history has pene- 
trated all its parts. Even where the gospel is dis- 
owned, it spreads a genial and a humanizing sway, 
so that the Turk, the Hindoo, and the Islander, alike 
reject its constraints and crave its blessings. In 
more favoured lands it has given tone to all society. 
Law is a far gentler and wiser thing because Jesus 
lived and loved and died; the Sabbath is gradually 
taking place among the institutions of civilized 
nations ; and the ordinary language of life is shaped 
and coloured by the utterances of religion. 

Thus, in a measure, the old landmarks of the 
church are being removed — rather, are being covered 
— by the generous products of her eighteen cen- 
turies' toil. Neither social nor civil peculiarities now 
point out the Christian to the gaze of men. If he only 
abstains from purely spiritual duties while others 
are with him, — such duties as prayer, religious con- 
versation, &c., — the fact that he is a believer may 
escape notice indefinitely. And this, not because 
the hearts of impenitent men are better, but only 



44 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 



that their lives are more under our influence. True, 
the victory has not been all on our side : the church 
has given ground also; but the church has more 
transformed the life of the world than the world has 
corrupted the life of the church. Between the pro- 
nounced and unflinching on either side, however, 
there is still a gap ; it is filled by two classes of com- 
promisers, — the Worldly Christian and what we may 
call the Half-*way Christian. 

But, notwithstanding the apparent likeness of 
these two classes, there remains a gulf between them. 
One is the unfaithful servant of Christ; the other is 
the daunted and fearful but persevering servant of 
sin. One is breaking the vow he once so heartily 
made to be the Lord's; the other refuses even to 
vow in heart whatever the lips may declare, and he 
lies beneatb the constant, tremendous wrath of God. 
One is called back with the plea, ^^ Grieve not the 
Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed;'^ the 
other hears the voice, ^^What meanest thou, 
sleeper? Arise and call upon thy God, if so be 
thou perish not !'^ One has but to return to the 
path he has forsaken to be forever safe and happy ; 
the other has the work of a lifetime to undo, and 
that work is hardening into adamantine ruin under 
his hands. 

Grievous, then, as is the state of the first, — and 
God forbid that I should palliate his sin or hide his 



THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 45 



danger J — the other's guilt and peril yet more urgently 
demand our pity and faithfulness. All the more^ 
too^ because he has reached a point where self-de- 
ception is so easy, where conscience may be lulled 
into so obstinate a sleep, where the graces of life 
may be the handmaids of eternal death. 

Let us devote this chapter, therefore, to the half- 
way Christian; let us describe him, and look at his 
history and his prospects. 

And, in describing him, let us look at his cha- 
racter. He is a sinner ; and this word, that we use 
so easily and so often, however quietly it may slide 
from the tongue, has, we know, a terrible signifi- 
cance. To put aside, now, all thought of those 
positive transgressions from which no man living is 
free, to put them aside a moment and pare down the 
indictment to the utmost, — to be a sinner is to keep 
back from Almighty Grod his rights. It is not to 
love or trust him, though he bids us, though he 
made us, though he gave his dear Son to save us ! 
It is to exist upon his bounty in a world he fitted 
up for us, and yet not give him the tribute he de- 
mands. It is to give him, for a garden, a desert; 
for a loyal province, a rebellious land; for subjects, 
traitors; for children, strangers and enemies. And, 
just as the want of food is famine and death and 
the want of liberty is bondage, so sin, even in this 



46 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 



lowest form of it, is awful wickedness and eternal 
woe. 

But tile man we speak of is a thougJitful sinner; 
his days of careful levity are gone, — never, I liope 
and pray, never to return! Something has ^^met 
him in the path of worldliness and vanity 3^^ per- 
haps danger has shaken the sword at him, or sick- 
ness has withered his strength and mocked his hopes, 
or bereavement has shivered the earthen casket that 
held all his treasures and made life for the time a 
blank, or his plans have failed him and riches have 
taken to themselves wings and fled away, or one of 
the Lord^s ambassadors has spoken a faithful word 
that he cannot forget, or conscience has raised her 
stern voice at last and warned him to make his peace 
with Grod. However it began, he can no longer say 
he forgets to think about religion ; for she will not 
be forgotten. Whether he will or not, he is bound 
now to thought and seriousness. He may shake it 
off at times; the heart is a very elastic thing, and 
recovers its spring and spirit in spite of all sad truth ; 
but the load comes back daily, and he is compelled 
to look death, judgment, and an angry God, in the 
face. 

He is a daunted and fearful sinner. Other men 
may rush recklessly back into pleasure and business, 
they may hide the agony they cannot escape under 
life's cares and triumphs, they may take the wretched 



THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 47 



substitutes of amusement and excitement for the 
peace they may never, never know; but not he I 
He must stand with shrinking and sick heart and 
watch the scythe of death swing closer and closer 
and closer to his breast and know that it cuts down 
every hope of salvation when it strikes. He cannot 
persuade himself to call heartily, trustfully, on that 
Friend who is reported to be near but whom his eye 
does not see; but neither can he blindfold himself 
or dance on to meet the stroke. No; he is driven 
to obey with bitter faithfulness all the minor com- 
mands of his King, to do all the minute and toil- 
some details of duty that could be exacted of a 
man, only to let alone that royal law, to leave undone 
that noble and happy thing which would set him 
free ! What a bondage ! 

The half Christian, then, is a sinner, amiable, 
perhaps, and correct in life, but withholding from 
God every thing of value in his heart; bent by ex- 
ternal forces to thought and solemnity; driven by 
conscience and fear from his chosen way of life into 
religious observances but not into a pious heart. 

Look now at his conduct towards God and man. 

There are certain things a king must receive from 
his subjects: — feelings and acts of duty, without 
which he may reign, indeed, in name, but can be 
only a painted show and the semblance of a mon- 
arch: loyal affection and a strong principle of 



48 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 



obedience to his autbority are vital to bis dignity 
and pillars of bis kingly state. So, also, tbere needs 
something more to make a fatber or a motber tban 
tbe presence of children in one's bouse : if confi- 
dence, love, and prompt obedience do not dwell in 
it, there is no parent there. 

Now, if any large number of a king's subjects 
should refuse those tributes of heart and life to 
their sovereign, he would be virtually dethroned, 
however minutely they might observe all the forms 
and proprieties of court etiquette. They might 
even carry their attentions so far and prosecute them 
so gracefully that their injured lord should wink at 
their treason; for there are always many other 
faculties in a man than those of his office; yet 
would it be treason still. 

But Grod's offices and character square exactly 
with each other; if you offend him as King and 
Father there is no making it up to him in other re- 
lations; no sentimental gratitude for the beauties 
and bounties of nature, no superficial regrets for 
past indifference to him as a friend, no regrets, how- 
ever deep, for this kind of wrong, can conciliate him. 
Nothing will, which does not include a full acknow- 
ledgment of him as Father and King, and an humble 
confession of our sin. 

Now, it is just this impossible thing the half-way 
Christian is trying to do. Perfect love and perfect 



THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 49 



faith are the supreme law of God^s kingdom^ and 
there is no such thing as violating this supreme law 
and yet being an obedient subject by dint of observ- 
ing the other laws. Yet these are the two features 
of this man's life : — habitual breach of the supreme 
law, and sedulous regard of the specific laws. No 
love or trust fill his heart or give meaning to his 
life; but he reads his Bible, ^^says his prayers/' 
observes the Sabbath, abstains from dissipation and 
vice, — in a word, performs, as nearly as he can, all 
the external duties of a Christian. We must de- 
scribe his conduct towards God, therefore, as sin in 
the dress of 'religion. 

In his conduct towards men he is best described 
by negatives. His life is a good one as to the 
things he does not do; his example is good because 
of the conduct it does not inculcate. Life should 
be adorned with holy deeds. A prayerful mind, a 
heavenly temper, a Christ-like benevolence, should 
mark its course and tell its spring. There should 
be such sacred courage, such resolute following of 
good, such praise of God, such suggestions of hea- 
ven, such diffusing of a pure and thankful spirit, as 
would supplant the fascinations of a sinful life before 
men with the beauty of a godlike one. These are the 
positive qualities of Christian life and the fruits of 
the Spirit: — love, joy, fervour, faithfulness, truth, 
goodness. To strike these all off the roll of our 

5 



50 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 



duties and deeds and yet call our life and example 
good^ would be to betray a miserably low standard 
of goodness. The best feature of his life is that he 
has left off the sins of hand and tongue by which 
other sinners discover their sin of heart; he is no 
longer profane, cruel, malicious, headstrong, passion- 
ate, intemperate, sacrilegious. But he has not taken 
faith, prayer, zeal, praise, and a heart that burns to 
do good, in their stead. He betrays his sin of heart 
less often and less grossly now ; but it is there still. 
His example may avail to keep other men from sins; 
but it will never spread a heavenly temper through 
their souls or counterwork sin by the strong sympa- 
thies of a holy heart. His conduct to men, then, 
must be described as sin striking in, — grown less 
flagrant and more subtle. 

Let us look now, briefly, at his treatment of Bible 
truth. Nobody doubts that truth everywhere is to 
be loved, believed, and acted on, or that truth about 
God, heaven, and salvation, is the most admirable 
of all truths. Yet, in fact, no subject of general 
interest is so variously disposed of as Bible truth. 
A few gladly and gratefully adopt it; some fasten 
upon one idea and compel it unwillingly to crowd 
out all the rest; some strive to forget it; some ex- 
plain it away; some cavil and speculate and break its 
force. What does the half-way Christian do ? 

He usually makes a point of admitting it all in a 



THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 51 



general way. If lie has doubts and difficulties he 
hides them even from himself, and insists on believ- 
ing the doctrines just as they are received. This, 
not because of a strong and loyal pleasure in being 
taught of God, but because it takes away one of the 
distinctions between himself and Christians and thus 
weakens the accusations of conscience. But he 
declines to deal with these truths separately, or, if 
he does, it must be doctrinally; he will not consider 
them practically at all. 

He admits man^s total depravity ; but it does not 
urge him to immediate repentance and humility and 
to kneel at the feet of Christ as the only Saviour. 
He shrinkingly acknowledges that the wicked '' shall 
go away into everlasting punishment/' but if you 
ask, '' What will ye do in the day of desolation V^ why 
not flee from the wrath to come ? — he turns silently 
away or makes some hollow and vain excuse. His 
state of mind about Bible truth, then, must be de- 
scribed as sin trying to hide itself in orthodoxy. 

Once more; notice his feelings and conduct in 
view of his prospects for eternity. Ask him about 
them: — "What feelings and thoughts have you 
when you look on death, — when sickness or danger 
besets you, — when the awful day of reckoning 
looms up, lighted by the glories and terrors of the 
world behind it? — what do you think? what do 
you feel?'' And the honest answer, if you could 



52 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 



wrest it from tliat self-deceitful* heart, must be, ^^ I try 
not to think; Ibid all feeling down; I hasten away 
to some other subject; I speculate on doctrines, or 
do some duty, or lose myself in business, — any thing, 
rather than keep my heart steadily to the truth till 
it breaks and goes to God.'^ Or, ^^I make some 
excuse to relieve me : as, I know not why I am not 
a Christian; or, I cannot feel; or, I must wait on the 
Lord ; or, I am too busy just now, — something to make 
my guilt look less heinous, my danger less quick 
and terrible, than it really is/^ Or, ^^I call myself 
and my heart hard names, until I succeed in divert- 
ing my attention from the truths I ought to feel to 
the things I am trying to say, or to complacency in 
my virtuous indignation against myself/' Here, 
then, is sin conscience-smitten, but jprocrastinating y 
flattering J deceiving. 

But how came he into this state? Other men 
fall back from conviction into carelessness, or pro- 
gress into piety: why is he left just here? To 
answer this question, we must examine his history 
and see what God did and what he did. 

God gave him a mind able to look at truth or 
away from it ; gave truth a being and an attraction 
that ought to sway his heart. It was a fearful as 
well as a glorious gift ! It put him in the midst of 
eternal verities on which the Eternal Mind has ever 



THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 53 



dwelt and by wHicli it moves. It spread out before 
him a universe too wonderful to be objectless, too 
various and noble not to bave a Maker, a Keeper, 
and a King. It offered that God bimself to bis 
knowledge. It drew tbe paths of duty and of sin 
in bright characters on the map of life, and bade 
him choose, choose wisely, and be blest. It sang 
to him of Jesus and of heaven. Verily, man could 
not live thus, having these things before him, and 
not touch the spring of judgment ! 

God gave him a heart as well as a mind; poured 
the sweet sensibilities into their channels to water 
all his life with tenderness and love. He addressed 
to it those high persuasions to goodness and glory 
before whose eloquence the seductions of sin should 
have faded out of sight. He whispered all the 
story of the cross, that should have broken the 
hardest heart. 

God did another thing : when th-at ear had grown 
deaf and slumberous and all the senses had sunk 
into apathy and the heart was stiffening into death, 
God sounded an alarm. It is not he that sets us 
adrift in this world and lulls us into deep slumber 
with treacherous songs, and then gathers the clouds 
and winds into his hands and besets us with storms 
and death ! 

The Holy Spirit descends upon him and com- 
mands a pause, a pondering, a prayer; kindles the 

6* 



54 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 



flame of wrath across his chosen way, but bids him 
turn and live; brings him to relenting and self- 
scrutiny; urges on him a longing after something 
better than earthliness and pleasure; makes the 
void within swell out vaster, hungrier, while the 
world dwindles away to vanity and dust; pictures 
the joy of pardon and of peace with the Highest. 

He feels at last his danger and his unworthiness 
of safety; he is beset with the thought of a refuge 
in Christ; he is made to know that he can give no 
good reason why he has not sought shelter there. 
Thus much God has done; and he still urges him 
to faith and obedience. 

All this, you see, is in one direction ; it is mani- 
festly aimed at his conversion : will any one venture 
to say that God has done any thing on the other 
side, even though his heart should prove to be 
fatally hardened and his perdition sure ? 

Ask, now, what he has done. He has thought 
of religion while God constrained him to think, and 
no longer. He trembles while the thunder rolls, 
and no longer. He has faced the truth of his shame 
and danger while it fastened on him, and no longer. 
He gives up his vain excuses when they are wrenched 
away by a stronger than he, but not before. He has 
clothed himself in that armour of proof against con- 
science and God, — a formally-religious life. He 
has taken a high moral tone and denounced the in- 



THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAN. 55 



consistencies of Christians instead of his own. All 
he has done in the matter may be summed up in 
one word : — he has resisted the Holy Spirit. 

Now we see why he stands where he does : he 
has advanced so far, because God is so good; he 
has gone no farther, because he is so unthankful 
and evil. 

What will his end be? We may answer this 
question very briefly. 

He may, by God's grace, be brought to repent 
of his present sin and be saved. I say '^ his present 
siiij^ — the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit. This is 
not his thought, I know. He is inclined to believe 
that he is doing his duty so far as a man can, but 
that God for some mysterious reason is keeping him 
back; that, therefore, he must go on patiently as 
he is and wait God's good time for deliverance. 
What a terrible mistake I '' All things are now 
ready.^' The sacrifice is slain, the Intercessor 
found, the Comforter come down from heaven, 
the Bible given, his heart touched: ^^what more,^' 
saith the Lord, ^^ could have been done in my vine- 
yard that I have not done in it?'^ All things are 
now ready, and God invites him to enter and be 
blest. ^^The kingdom suffereth violence, and the 
violent take it by force. ^^ The vehement and earnest 
in seeking God, the importunate in prayer, they 



56 THE HALF-WAY CHRISTIAlSr. 



that seek tim early and search ft)r him with all 
their hearty shall find him. Is it no sin to be half- 
hearted and slack at such a time ? 

He may justify himself^ (Job ix. 20 J and make 
his way seem right in his own eyes; but the Lord 
will condemn him^ and the end of his way is death : 
(Prov. xvi. 25.) With hearts so treacherous as 
our's are^ it is easy to persuade ourselves that our 
course is right, or that any other is impossible, even 
though conscience murmurs and protests against it. 
All we own to ourselves is an inward aching, which 
we can neither explain nor charm away, — a thun- 
derous mutter in the air, that will not syllable itself 
and speak, — the voice of our blood crying against 
us from the ground ! 

^^Are there not twelve hours in the day?^^ That 
is. Are not our opportunities numbered? We 
drift idly through them, as through islands in the 
harbour's mouth, into the blank and pitiless ocean, 
and are swallowed up. ^^Many shall seek to enter 
in and shall not be able.'^ 



BE READY. 57 



CHAPTER IV. 



BE READY! 



It is one of the commonest principles of human 
prudence to guard against possible evils. The dikes 
around our fields are raised not merely to the height 
of ordinary tides, but so far as we think secures us 
against flood and storm. We build our houses to 
endure not the breezes only, but such gales as may 
never blow. AVe erect hospitals in cities not be- 
cause pestilence will come, but because it may come. 
We collect munitions, build forts, train troops, not 
when war is imminent, but in days of safety and 
peace. And he who neglects such precautions — the 
man who makes no count of winds and floods — the 
state which fails to contrive against pestilence and 
war — is felt to have bought ruin with folly. 

Yet more pressing is this when the coming of the 
event is sure and only its date uncertain. No man 
knows when death will find him ; but that is an ar- 
gument, not for postponing the preparation of his 
will and the arrangement of his property, but for 
hastening it. If I know I have a journey to take 



58 BE READY. 



but not the day when I shall be summoned to begin 
it^ I should be blind not to dispose every thing in 
perfect readiness for it^ so as to obey the sudden 
call^ when it comes^ with that promptness and pre- 
paration which is the fruit of wisdom. 

To this broad maxim the Scripture often appeals. 
^^The coming of the Son of man^^ is sure. Nothing 
else is so certain : — not the recurrence of the seasons; 
not the earth^s silent travel through its orbit ; not 
the rising of to-morrow^ s sun. These all shall pass 
away ; but not He. As a vesture shall he fold them 
up; and they shall be changed; they shall perish, 
but he abides, and his years have no end. And 
because that dread encounter, that bright and awful 
centre of our histories, may come in any hour, we 
are entreated to be ^^ready.''^ 

The figure used in this appeal, which describes 
our meeting the Judge of all by saying that ^^the 
Son of man cometh^^ — whereas^ in fact, we may go 
to him — is a very common forna of speech. We 
continually say that fall, or winter, or the new year, 
or the grave, is coming near, — that the sun rises, 
that the shore recedes, — when it is we that move, and 
not they. Just so may be the coming of the Lord : 
he awaits us, and time and death sweep us silently 
on to his feet. In truth, the distance between us 
and him is not a matter of space, but of visibility. 
He is already beside us ! When he lifts the curtain, 



BE READY. 59 



and shows liis awful face and speaks our doom, he 
will be ^^conie/' 

The first thought here is that some kind of pre- 
paration for death and judgment is necessary, and 
that not to be prepared is extremely perilous. ^^Be 
ye ready.'' It is possible, therefore, to be unready. 
This exposes at once the awful deceit and falseness 
of that skeptical impression which so often lulls the 
salutary fear of sinners, — that God, after all, is not 
a punisher; that, if men should go before him as 
they are, he would find some excuse for them, and 
not execute, as he declares he will, " the fierceness 
of his anger.'' 

If this doctrine of Uniyersalism is true, then 
men may die any day of their lives, — the liar with 
his lie upon his lips, the drunkard in his cups, the 
murderer red-handed, — and there is no guilt so deep, 
no crime so cruel, no corruption so foul — but this 
Being will pardon them ! 

Yet the Scripture emphatically contradicts all 
this. It declares men may be unprepared to meet 
the Son of God, and it urges them to be ^^ ready." 

Let us look a little at some of the grounds on 
which this universal — I mean this promUcuous — 
salvation is argued. And the readiest, perhaps, on 
man's lip is that God is too good to inflict eternal 
sufi'erings on his creature. Now, God is good; that 



60 BE READY. 



is certain : and his goodness is in some way recon- 
cilable with the existence of pain, for pain is found • 
everywhere, though God is good. One week^s bill 
of mortality, one week of our own experience, would 
seem to settle that. 

Besides, is God too good to punish us and yet 
not too good to deceive us? — frighten us with the 
most appalling but empty threats, — predict for us 
immeasurable woes, which have no existence hut in 
Ms word? What conceivable object is there for 
these threats if there is no hell ? Why should he 
warn us against imaginary dangers? Why shake 
at us the sword with which he never means to strike ? 
Is it to make us better? Then, ifirst, God is not 
wise and skilful enough to perfect the deception; 
for it seems men have found him out, as Satan did, 
and know that we shall not surely die. But, se- 
condly, suppose the end were gained in this life, 
and men lived in dread of a woe that does not exist : 
what would be the effect of the discoveries they must 
make in death and after death ? With what eyes 
would his creatures look at him ! Verily, the Bible 
account would just be reversed: instead of God 
judging men, men would judge God ! 

But often it is said, ^^God is too just to visit finite 
offences with infinite punishment.'^ I answer, God 
is just; that is certain: yet he constantly connects 
long trains of consequences with single acts. A 



BE READY. 61 



man foolishly risks his property a day, and beggars 
himself and his children. He leaves his house un- 
insured one night, and the labour of years is swept 
away. Through carelessness he takes a dose of 
poison, and dies once for all. Where then is the 
impossibility, as regards God's justice, that the way 
we spend these long years of probation should in- 
fluence our whole eternal after-life ? 

But the case is sometimes argued in another way. 
It is said we are punished for each transgression of 
every kind of law as we go. If we eat unwholesome 
food we get sick ; if we sin against public opinion 
we lose the respect and good-will of society; and 
so on. 

This is certainly a dangerous argument for the 
Universalist. It seems, now, there are laws, and 
those laws are enforced by penalties. Then this 
will surely be most true and most conspicuous in 
the highest kind of law, — that is, the moral law. 
Do we find it so in this life? 

We see men suffer here with some uniformity 
if they violate the laws of health or outrage the 
moral sense of men. But do we see judgments of 
proportionate severity fall on those who sin against 
God ? Do the profane, the Sabbath-breakers, the 
prayerless, the hard-hearted, receive according to 
their guilt this side the grave ? Are we not con- 
stantly perplexed by just the opposite fact, — that 



62 BE READY. 



^^ these are the ungodly wlio prosper in tlie eartli'^ ? 
Do not those we esteem excellent and holy suffer 
above measure^ while the scoffer escapes? 

It is plain^ then^ that the highest class of offences 
is not punished in this life^ and^ inasmuch as — the 
Uniyersalist himself being judge — all offences are 
punished^ this also must be visited somewhere. To 
borrow the old illustration, if a watchmaker, a wise 
and steadfast man, having worked industriously at 
the parts of a watch, suddenly gathers them up and 
takes them to another room, I conclude at once that 
it is to finish the watch. 

Once more it is said, ^^It is a horrible thought 
that sin and pain should last forever/^ I admit it : 
but is it not horrible that they should he at all? 
Yet it is true : men do sin, and death and woe do 
reign, nevertheless. And what remedy can there 
be beyond the grave for our ruin that does not fail 
with sinners here ? Who shall be more eloquent 
than Grod himself ? What atonement more precious 
than the blood of the Son of God? What power 
mightier than God the Holy Spirit ? If these are 
lost on us here, the case is hopeless. So reason 
confesses; so God declares. 

Such are some of the sophistries by which man 
tries to prove that preparation for death and judg- 
ment is not necessary; and we see how idle they 
are, — the mere creatures of his vain wishes for im- 



BE READY. 63 



punity in sin. Let us look now at some facts on 
the other side which show that preparation is 
necessary. 

Consider, first, that man's natural thoughts are 
not heavenly, but worldly. Let any impenitent 
reader recall the thoughts and cares of yesterday. 
On what did his mind run? About what did he 
hope, fear, grieve, rejoice? To what would his 
thoughts fly back this instant if he left them free? 
To things that are seen and temporal : — things of 
the earth; things of which pride or covetousness, 
revenge, self-interest, or vanity, can lay hold; out 
of which Grod, heaven, and Jesus Christ could be 
left entirely and not missed ! Now, if you suppose 
God ever so tolerant of your sins, there will be an 
utter unfitness for the thoughts and joys of heaven 
just in this worldly temper of your mind. How 
perfectly out of his element does the thoughtless 
sinner now feel himself when a religious conversa- 
tion is carried on around him I And would it relieve 
him if the employment and the society were fixed 
on him forever ? 

But there is a great event lying between death 
and heaven which we must not overlook, for God 
will not forget it : — ^^ after death the judgment.^' 
And the different views of men about its time and 
mode no more show that there is no judgment than 
different mental philosophies show there is no mind, 



64 BE READY. 



or different medical theories prove there is no pain, 
no sickness, no medicine, no bodies. That heart so 
godless, that life so full of transgressions, have 
both to bear a strict and terrible review; every 
dark corner, every wrong deed, will rest under the 
kindling of JehovaVs eye ! 

He will try you by a law. Have you kept it ? 
Have you loved him with heart and soul and mind 
and strength ? Have you loved your fellow-men as 
yourself? Are you ^^ perfect'^ before God ? I pray 
you, answer not these plain questions heedlessly: 
self deception cannot alter the facts. And, if you 
weigh them ever so briefly, I know there will come 
out of the heart's depth a confession : — '^ If thou. Lord, 
art strict to mark iniquity, Lord, who shall stand ?^' 
There is but one way, my friend, in which the shame- 
ful history of a godless life can be unread : if you 
refuse that way, you will die unprepared and be 
judged as you die. 

It is but too certain Grod is angry with you now. 
Your discontent and restlessness prove it; your life, 
marked with disappointment, bereavement, and pain; 
your unwillingness to think of him; your recoil from 
the sight of death ; your haste to drown it in other 
thoughts. His word declares it : he gathers up all the 
images of woe and fury and peoples the swift future 
as it approaches with menaces and flames. He de- 
scribes you minutely in the indictment he has drawn 



BE READY. 65 



He applies to you the curses of his broken law. 
Grod is angry with you ! 

He tells you he will appear in the Judgment, 
clothed in that same wrath against all who come 
before him with the same hearts and feelings they 
have indulged here. Now, if the anger of a God is 
fearful, — if we live by his kindness, and suffer under 
his frown, and die at his word, — if even here, where 
mercy is tempering every infliction and perpetually 
lightening his hand, pain, dismay, and terrors beset 
us on every side, — it is surely worth our while to 
prepare ourselves, according to his advice, for that 
" great and terrible day of the Lord/' If there is 
another character in which we may appear, — a 
character on which he will smile and send eternal 
blessings, — surely, surely it would be wise to put it 
on and escape. 

It is time now to put another question. What 
is there in death and judgment, for which it is ne- 
cessary to prepare ? What makes these events 
such a <;risis ? 

We find in death the end of our probation. The 
life we now live is given us, not for itself, but for 
what it may bring after it. From our childhood 
different courses of conduct are set before us, among 
which we choose, and whose consequences fall onus. 
Obedience or disobedience to parents, diligence or 
6* 



66 BE READY. 



negligence at school, vicious or virtuous habits in 
early life, — these, and such as these, are the alterna- 
tives laid upon us, and much of life is wrapped up in 
each one. Greatest of them all is the choice be> 
tween religion and ungodliness, — whether our early 
feet shall tread the heavenly road, or our steps take 
hold on death. 

One after another the time for these decisions 
passes away. If we fail to make them deliberately, 
neglect and an evil heart make them for us. ^^*Mil- 
lions of money'^ cannot buy you back " an inch of 
time.^' But, because religion is the most precious 
thing of all, because it lays hold upon eternal years, 
we have its words of tenderest love repeated in our 
ears for a whole lifetime. Behold, he stands at 
the door of our hearts through the long night and 
knocks. If we open to him, he enters as a friend, 
bringing blessings inestimable, peace and endless 
joy, in his hands. 

But, when death palsies our arm and himself un- 
bars the door, all is changed, and that forever. 
Then farewell Sabbaths, gospel, prayer I Farewell 
to opportunities, days of grace, and dealings of the 
Holy Spirit! Unwittingly, in our carnal slumber, 
we ran out our little remnant of reprieve; tumbled 
heavily from our height of privilege into a bottom- 
less abyss. There is no second antechamber to 
God^s judgment-hall; we step through that chill 



BE READY. 67 



and narrow gateway, the grave, into Lis awful pre- 
sence, and our probation is ended. 

We find in death also the end of our stewardship 
and a final rendering of accounts. We are God's 
stewards. He set us in our several ofiices and 
spread out opportunities to be useful, to be happy, 
like fields of fruitful soil, around us. He gave us 
our minds fitted to know and love and keep the 
truth. He sent our serious thoughts and lessons of 
Providence. But not ignorantly ! not thoughtlessly ! 
Not one of all our blessings escaved him : they 
obeyed him. All are registered. He will inquire 
of us the history of every one. He will know how 
we used or abused those gifts bought with his Son's 
blood. And what can we tell him ? What count- 
less numbers we have forgotten entirely. How our 
Sabbaths were spent; what became of our oppor- 
tunities to pray, to study his word, to confess and 
repent of sin ; what use we made of the good ex- 
amples and the terrible warnings he set before us, — 
what a blank our memories are about them. 

But a worse matter is this : — the sinner has no- 
thing to sJioio for them. If you cut down an old 
tree you can read in its rings the story of every 
favourable season in the last age; while immortal 
men, who have to be judged, have never prospered 
in any season of God's bounty ! 

That day will end all. God will dry up the 



68 BE READY. 



streams of blessing for the waster; hush the sweet 
Sabbath bells ; release the stubborn heart from his 
merciful constraints ; only, insist on knowing to what 
these kindnesses have amounted. And to every 
question you can only answer, ^^Lost! lost P^ The 
echo of the confession will speak your doom, — Lost ! 

Yet a more terrible thing will the sinner find in 
death, — the end of all Christ's efforts to save him. 
How great they have been ! It is not often that 
the kindest friend is willing both to make sacrifices 
for us and to urge us to accept his kindness : he is 
apt to feel that he has done enough when he has put 
the gift or the help within our reach 3 and that, if 
we neglect it then, it is our own fault. But not so 
has our Saviour dealt with us : if he had, not a soli- 
tary Christian would have lifted an eye of faith to 
that dear cross; not a voice of prayer or praise 
would have broken the deep silence of a ruined 
world or changed its groans to songs. 

Not so has our Saviour dealt with us. When he 
had prepared a salvation for us, at once he began to 
commend it to us. It is he that now urges it on 
you; ^^we are ambassadors for Christ;'^ I bring my 
message from his word; the almighty Spirit he has 
purchased and sent down is the only hope that men 
will hear. 

Now, in death all these things pass away. The 
blood of Christ avails not beyond the grave; his 



BE READY. 69 



voice will never be raised in invitation, promise, or 
entreaty there; the Spirit of all grace will be 
gracious no more forever. In one little hour all 
that man can depend upon for help and redemption, 
all that sheds one ray of hope upon his future, all 
that invites repentance and forbids despair, will be 
swept away. 

It is plain, then, that we may sum up all this 
argument in this one word: — here, preparation is 
possible ; there, imj)ossihle. Here, ^Hhe blood of 
Christ cleanseth from all sin;^^ there, ^^he that is 
filthy shall be filthy still. '^ Here, hope and privilege 
and blessing compass us about; there, a guilty con- 
science and a dreadful Judge. Here is the day of 
mercy; there the day of doom. 

In this world the sinner's feeling is, ^^I have 
time enough and to spare; God^s mercy is so free, 
heaven's gate opens so widely, that any hour will do, 
— even the hour of death. '^ Grod^s language is, 
"Hasten, sinner! all things are now ready; my 
word is open to you, my Son is slain for you, my 
Spirit strives with you. To-day, if ye will hear his 
voice, harden not your heart ; now is the day of 
salvation V^ In the judgment, God will say, '' De- 
part !'' Man will cry, "The harvest is past, the 
summer is ended, and I am not saved V^ 

It remains now but to ask, What is it to be 



70 BE READY. 



'^ready^^y How can we prepare for death and. 
judgment ? 

From what has been said it is evident we will find 
two things indispensable at the last: — 2i full pardon 
and a new heart. As we have all been unbelievers, 
we are all ^^ condemned already ;^^ as we were born of 
human race, we are ^^dead in trespasses and sins/^ 
To fail of pardon is to meet Grod^s curse; to fail of 
holiness is to invite it. 

Neither of these, however, can we procure for 
ourselves: we can neither deserve, nor buy, nor 
achieve, salvation. If we have no Helper, it is 
utterly beyond our reach. 

And this it is which makes Christ^s work on 
earth the pivot of our destinies. He is the Door, 
as he said, through which alone man can escape. 
But then, he is a perfect refuge; he can supply 
both our fatal wants. Grod hath set him forth to 
be a propitiation through faith in his blood ; that 
God might be just, and justify him who belie veth 
in Jesus. He has power, therefore, to forgive sins. 
None can condemn his people or lay any thing to 
their charge; for he has died for their sins and 
risen again for their justification. Thus the ^^full 
pardon^ ^ is possible to men; it waits for them at the 
foot of the cross. 

He has provided, also, for our other vital ne- 
cessity, — a new heart. ^^If he had not gone away, 



BE READY. 71 



the Comforter had not come; but now he is ascended 
to heaven^ that Holy Spirit has come down to 
quicken and to save. As many as are led by the 
Spirit of God^ they are the sons of God. And if 
we who are evil know how to give good gifts unto 
our children^ how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ! 
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him 
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
give us all things ?'' Thus the ^^ new heart'' is pro- 
vided as well as the ^^ pardon/' 

Our place to prepare^ then, is at Jesus' feet ; the 
time, now; the way, to own ourselves lost, helpless, 
and guilty, and to receive and rest on him for salva- 
tion. Is he not worthy ? Has he not bought with 
his heart's blood the privilege of saving poor sinners ? 



72 DESPISEST THOU? 



CHAPTER V. 

DESPISEST THOU? 

^^ Or despisest thou tlie riclies of Ms goodness, 
forbearance, longsuffering ; not knowing tliat the 
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ?^^ 
What an appalling paradox is this I Man despising 
God and God's goodness ! ^^ Despisest thou ?^^ Paul 
says. Hast thou built up thy Babel-tower of pride 
so high that thou canst look out and look doiun on 
thy Maker ? He piled up the mountains ; he sowed 
the broad field of heaven with stars; he kindled the 
solar fires ; he reigns immortal in glory everlasting : 
hath thine arrogance mounted up so high as to shed 
scorn on the Almighty ? 

And which of ail his attributes wilt thou choose 
to bear thy contempt ? Wilt thou despise his might 
who can shiver the solid world with a blow, — yea, 
without a blow ? Wilt thou despise his justice who 
hath prepared eternal fire for the devil and his 
angels, which shall be the portion also of the im- 
penitent sinner ? Thou canst not ! Yv^hich shall it 
be, then ? '^ The riches of his goodness V^ Thou wilt 
point thy finger at God's heart, turning within him, 



DESPISEST THOU? 73 



melting to pity, loving the world; at the pierced 
heart of Christ, — pierced, too, for thee ! This is 
Paul's accusation : let us see if it can be proved. 
The principle affirmed is, that to continue impeni- 
tent is to throw contempt on God^s kindness. 1 
suppose you to deny or at least to doubt it : I 
undertake, as Paul did, to prove it. 

But, before we begin the argument, let me entreat 
my readers to employ a deep and solemn honesty in 
this matter, — to read with their hearts. If you 
attend only as to a curious question, fairly open to 
debate and giving room for ingenious remark, it will 
not profit you. 

Listen, then,. I pray you, with an urgent honesty 
that must know the reality, and can be content with 
nothing less. Acknowledge your vital interest in 
the matter. You have a great stake here, nothing 
less than your eternal life, depending on the decision 
of this very question, — viz. : whether or not there 
is a damning guilt in neglecting God and his offers 
of grace. And your first concern is to come at the 
truth on this point, be it what it may. Follow out the 
argument patiently, therefore; examine every posi- 
tion carefully; and receive, as in God's sight, the 
conclusion if it fairly follows from the premises. 



The riches of God^s goodness, forbearance, and 
' 1 



longsuffering, are infinite. It is little even of man\s 



DESPISEST THOU? 



poor conceptions that can find expression in words,- 
and, alas, how little hope there is that even those 
words, though so far below the truth, will find an 
echo in sinners' hearts ! 

In setting forth the wonder of God's goodness, I 
remark, first, that it seemed to outshine justice. If 
there is any one attribute we should expect always 
to sway a king, it is justice. It is his most essen- 
tial quality that he should distribute his efforts and 
his cares righteously among his subjects. His first 
and chief intention must be to fence about with 
equal sacredness the welfare of all. Justice is the 
first want of the kingdom and the original glory of 
the king. His might and his wisdom, his sternness 
and his kindness, his private and his public acts, 
must follow up this end and accomplish it, or the 
best lustre of his crown is gone. 

Now, if you search the Old Testament Scriptures 
to discover the character of Grod you will find nothing 
else more plainly declared than his justice. He 
^^will by no means spare the guilty;" he ^^is a 
jealous God;" '' the soul that sinneth, it shall die :" 
'^ are not my ways equal ? are not your ways unequal ? 
saith the Lord." 

Heaven forbid that I should deny that God is 
just in the New Testament also. The very business 
of the gospel is to preserve his equity from spot or 
doubt in the pardon of sinners. But I need hardly 



DESPISEST THOU? 75 



remind you that if justice had absorbed his atten- 
tion, so to speak, we should have been very briefly 
disposed of. That attribute would have been tho- 
roughly employed and satisfied by our condemna- 
tion. The beauty and peculiar glory of the gospel 
lies in the mercy it displays. The quality most set 
forth in it is the love of God. Its good news is 
that Jesus shall save us from our sins. 

And herein the wonderful riches of his goodness 
is shown ; that, just as he is, his goodness has come 
before his justice, — stands between us and it, and 
tempers its tremendous fires into a heavenly light. 
The feeling that can outrun his jealousy, take to 
itself the first place, and give character to his deeds, 
must be strong indeed. 

Note, again, that his kindness gave a new aspect 
to his holiness. The first feature of holiness is the 
supreme determination to be right and to do right; 
the second is intense abhorrence of sin. The first 
of these was the continual glory of God from 
eternity; the second burst forth in unquenchable 
fire against the rebelling angels. But it was re- 
served for us, in our blindness and misery, to bring 
out another character from the clouds and darkness. 
Not in contrast with those first exhibitions: they 
burn on in eternal splendour, lighting up heaven 
with a perpetual joy. They are ^Hhe glory of the 
Lord God,'^ which, we are told; is 'Hhe light 



76 DESPISEST THOU? 



thereof/' But it was reserved for us to put another 
sun in heaven^s firmament; it is the glory of the 
Lamb. 

His kindness has added this new feature^ there- 
fore, to his holiness, — a longing to recover sinners 
and restore them to holiness. Mere abhorrence of 
sin would have simply banished us into the darkness 
forever. It would have said to us, ^^ Ye have chosen 
your portion ! God and happiness were before you; 
sin and no God and no joy; and you chose sin: 
depart into your choice V' But, instead of this, 
God said, " How can I give thee up ? I love the 
world; I will not the death of him that dieth, but 
rather that he should turn and live : will ye not 
repent and return unto the Lord your God?^' 
Hatred of sin abated not in the least; but the re- 
covery of the sinner was a new thing, which ^Hhe 
angels desire to look into.^^ They adore with un- 
ceasing admiration the longsuffering of God. 

God's kindness appears, again, in this : — that he 
loved man so tenderly that he gave his own Son to 
die for him. That Son by whom he made the 
world, with whom he shared his infinite glories, who 
had communed with him in eternal unity, — that 
Son he spared not, but delivered him up for us all. 

Have you weighed the import of the divine record 
on this subject ? — ^^And we have seen and do testify, 
that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of 



DESPISEST THOU? 77 



the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is 
the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he n 
God/'* ^^ Greater love hath no man than this, that 
a man lay down his life for his friend/'f " But 
God commeudeth his love toward us, in that, while 
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us/ 'J 

Let me come, now, directly to you, my impeni- 
tent reader. The wonderful riches of God's good- 
ness to you appears in this : — that lie has continued 
your opportunities and hlessings so long. Of all 
hearts, the heart of a benefactor is the most sensi- 
tive. The very warmth and softness that make him 
so bounteous and so kind prepare him to b© chilled 
with disappointment if his good- will is lightly valued 
or ill returned. 

To say nothing just here of the look your con- 
duct wears, the simple fact that he has not suc- 
ceeded in winning you to be saved makes his for- 
bearance difficult and his perseverance wonderful. 
He has, so to speak, risked every thing — his justice, 
his authority, his Son — to win you to repentance. 
It was strange that he should do this once ; that 
he should keep it up, and that for years, so that the 
youngest of my readers has set him at nought many 
times, is wellnigh incredible. Why ? Why is the won- 
derful, the awful experiment repeated and renewed 



* 1 John iv. 14, 15. f John xv. 13. J Romans v. 8. 

7«- 



DESPISEST THOU? 



almost without end? Why are the glory of God 
and the coming of his kingdom held in suspense, 
waiting the unwilling decision of a condemned sin- 
ner ? man, whosoever thou art, fall down quickly 
before God, and adore the riches of his goodness 
and forbearance and longsuffering ! 

The natural tendency of kindness is to subdue 
the rebellious and shame the ungrateful. 

Even the brutes come under this law. Below 
and behind reason is an instinct that constrains to 
return good-will to the kind : the whole animal 
kingdom acknowledges and obeys it. You cage the 
timidest of birds, speak always gently to it, provide 
its food and care for its various little wants, knowing 
that if it survive the loss of liberty it will learn to 
love and obey you. You give shelter to the colt, you 
feed and tend and train it, feeling sure that kind- 
ness and firmness mingled will at last enable you to 
animate it with your spirit and guide it by the 
lightest touch according to your will. You take 
the wildest beast of the desert, accustom it to your 
presence, teach it to take pleasure in your voice, 
and actually, as has been often seen, bind up its life 
in your own so that it pines away and dies if it lose 
you. Such a virtue hath God planted in the very 
brutes that perish, and bound up the whole world 
of livino; thiuos together under the law of kindness 



DESPISEST THOU? 79 



Mucli more evident is this if we notice the effect 
on men of human kindness. What man is there 
of us who does not look back upon his mother's love 
as the most beautiful J most moving thing in all his 
history? If she still lives^ which of us is not 
brought by the magic of it to abate a harsh voice, 
to unbend a proud brow, to mingle softness with his 
strength in her presence for her sake ? Who does 
not own it among the strongest arguments against 
a thing he wishes to do that it would grieve his 
mother ? And who does not feel that he who 
offends or wounds a mother wantonly has fallen 
from his high estate and manhood and put his best 
nature into bondage ? 

* If, alas, she has been taken from us, — if we must 
look back on disobedient and ungrateful days, — if 
she was snatched away before we could offer the 
poor atonement of confession or receive the bless- 
ing of forgiveness, — if the tears we caused were 
never wiped away, but were laid with her in the 
grave, — oh, what anguish is like the anguish of 
that recollection? If with years of life we could 
buy back one hour to repair the wrong, who would 
not give them ? It is the thought of her tender 
love that subdues us. 

In the days of the good Dr. Doddridge there 
lived in his neighbourhood an Irish labourer be- 
sotted alike with superstition and vice. The slave 



80 DESPISEST THOU? 



of his passions and of strong drink, lie gave way to 
his anger in a quarrel that arose, and murdered a 
man who had been his friend. He was arrested, 
tried; and condemned to die; and he bade fair, ai 
first, to die as he had hved, — a savage. All who 
came into his cell with warning, instruction, oi 
prayer, were driven furiously away. At last Dr. 
Doddridge entered his den, where he lay in chains 
and darkness, — entered it with tears of pity for the 
poor outcast who was about to settle his account 
with man only on the gallows and be swept on 
thence to the bar of God. 

Another day he mingled words of pity with his 
tears, and asked the sullen but wondering convict 
if he could serve him in any way. "Were there ady 
comforts he could procure him ? Had he any mes- 
sage to send to friends without ? Should he write 
for him to his mother? Slowly the blind and 
desperate heart began to soften ; gradually the law 
of kindness asserted its sway. The wild beast was 
tamed; the murderer wept with shame and gratitude. 

After a time Doddridge's labours were blessed 
to his conversion : the proofs of it were uncom- 
monly clear and convincing. His benefactor then 
exerted himself to obtain a pardon, or at least to 
have the capital sentence commuted; but in vain. 
The poor criminal said repeatedly that he cared little 
for life except to devote it to his unwearied friend. 



DESPISEST THOU? 81 



When the fatal day arrived^ he was asked, as 
usual, if he had auy last request to make : he 
begged that on his way to his dfeath he might be 
taken to Dr. Doddridge's house. In front of that 
door the cart stopped, and the condemned man, with 
his hands bound, was permitted to go to it. There, 
in the face of the multitude assembled to see him 
die, he kneeled down and kissed the threshold and 
prayed for a blessing on that dear head. He had 
no other wish but that; he went away unforced and 
tearful to his terrible death. Who does not feel 
that it was natural and right that such kindness 
should meet such a return ? 

Now, therefore, I contend that if human bene- 
factions ought to shame and conquer the evil heart, 
much more — a thousandfold more — ought God's love 
to melt us into contrition. Who is like unto the 
Lord our God? And what goodness is like his 
goodness, that we should persist in levity and un- 
thankfulness ? If man's kindness constrains us 
into affection, surely God's longsuffering leadeth us 
to repentance. 

We are ready now, doubtless, for the conclusion 
that to continue impenitent is to pour contempt on 
God and his infinite mercy. 

So doing, we impeach his character for truth and 
faithfulness; not in words, of course, but virtually. 



82 DESPISEST THOU? 



To live in the very presence of an emphatic and 
often-repeated declaration as if it had not been 
made is really to deny its truth. If you and I were 
about to embark in a steamer for some distant port, 
and an eminent engineer should stop us and say, 
'^Beware of that vessel! I inspected her yester- 
day, and her boiler is corroded and ready to burst ; 
her shaft is flawed and must soon break; her chief 
engineer is a sot:^' if we should look him blandly 
in the face while he spoke, and then press on into 
the doomed ship, would he not be justly offended, 
as though we had flatly contradicted him ? Would 
he not feel that we had earned our fate ? 

Just so do we discredit the truth of Grod when we 
go on in sin and self-indulgence, in obstinate se- 
curity, precisely as if he had not warned us. He 
has declared that the wages of sin is death; that 
the soul that sinneth it shall die ; that, if we turn 
not, he hath bent his bow and made it ready, and 
his arrows shall be sharp in the heart of the king's 
enemies ; that the wicked shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment. And now, if you and I treat 
sin lightly, we say he will not slay us for such small 
offences ; we turn away in silence from all his warn- 
ings; we declare we shall not surely die: — just that 
style of contradiction which insults most grossly. 

But suppose our friend the engineer should pro- 
ceed thus: — ^^This ship is doomed; the very first 



DESPISEST THOU I 



strain upon her will leave her helpless in the sea : 
but here is a vessel I have equipped for this very 
voyage. Science has done its utmost for her 
strength and speed; her stores are the choicest, 
her officers the flower of the navy. Go in her and 
I promise you safety and success; I ask it as a 
favour, even, so greatly do I desire to save you/' 
Suppose, I say, he should urge us thus, and we 
should push impatiently past him into the painted 
wreck we had chosen : how would it look to us in 
the day of storm and peril ? Should we not accuse 
ourselves of insolence as well as folly? 

And what has Grod said to us? ^^ Incline your 
ear and come unto me : hear, and your soul shall 
live ; and I will make an everlasting covenant with 
you, even the sure mercies of David;'^ ^^the righteous 
shall enter into life eternal/^ Now, if we hearken 
to his voice, if we feel the deep truth of every one 
of his words, if we live by them, well and good; we 
honour the faithfulness of God. If not, we may 
make our professions of respect as loud as a trumpet 
if we please, but our actions more loudly proclaim 
our utter skepticism. Remember, though we deny 
him, yet he abideth faithful ; he may deny us, but 
he cannot deny himself : yet the hearts and lives of 
the impenitent disclaim all faith in him, and put an 
open outrage on Almighty God. 

We throw contempt on him, again, by showing 



84 DESPISEST THOU? 



entire indifference to his will. And liere^ as we 
cannot canvass the whole vast subject^ look with me 
at one fact. God has publicly and continually ex- 
pressed his earnest desire to win our affections ; he 
asks, above all things, to be loved. Like every other 
true benefactor, one great aim of all his kindness 
is to win our esteem and trust. If he presses re- 
pentance on us, it is, so far as he is concerned, for 
this end : — that we might set our hearts on him. 

What now is the uppermost feeling about repent- 
ance in the mind of the impenitent, ay, and of the 
convicted sinner too ? Is there any quick and 
generous return of God's good-will ? Any glad ac- 
knowledgment of his bounty ? Any grateful devo- 
tion to him ? Ah, no ; it is the loay to he saved ! 
If we do not repent we cannot escape the eternal 
burnings ! God's wishes and feelings are of small 
concern to the sinner. Only give him safety, and 
he asks no more I 

Once more : in our impenitence we slight or for- 
get the tremendous sacrifices God has made for us. 
Everybody knows the story of Sir Philip Sydney 
wounded and dying in his tent^ and thirsting long 
before any water could be had. When at last a 
little cupfuU was brought, he alone saw the fainting 
soldier's eye following so wishfully the hand that 
bore it. ^^Give it,^^ he said, ^^to that poor fellow: 
he needs it more than I/^ Imagine, now, those two 



DESPISEST THOU? 85 



restored to health. Suppose the soldier, instead of 
being bound to bis general by a love stronger than 
death, to show an utter disregard of him, seeking 
him and caring for him only when he hoped to gain 
something from him, — for the rest, scornfully break- 
ing his commands and thwarting every wish of his 
noble benefactor, to suit his own convenience or his 
whim : is there a finger so spiritless as not to point 
at him, or a tongue so cowardly as not to load him 
with reproaches ? 

But what is this to Grod's kindness to us ? Christ 
bore for us this very pain of thirst, and it was only 
one of a thousand pangs. How do we treat him, 
we who will not repent? Just as I supposed that 
soldier to treat Sydney; though these sufferings were 
to those but as a cup of cold wat^r to a fiery ocean. 
We forget and disobey and grieve and dishonour 
him just as long as we dare. If a smitten con- 
science, or a sharp distress, or death impending, 
compels us to seek help, then we are found at his 
feet, and only then. Returning peace or health 
breaks the unwelcome bond and sets us free to for- 
sake Grod, and straightway he is forsaken. Thus, 
instead of serving Grod, we try to use him, — make 
his goodness and longsuffering the anodyne for our 
fears, the pillow for our uneasy heads. 

But, while we take advantage of his generosity, 
and that to the utmost, we yield nothing to his wish, 
8 



S6 DESPISEST THOUl 



nothing to his command^ nothing to his entreaty. 
His utmost eloquence and love and sacrifice can 
charm from ns nothing but — ^^Gro thy way for this 
time : when I have a convenient season I will call 
for thee/^ Is Paul's word too strong ? Is not this 
^^ despising' ' 

I may be expected to say something here of the 
danger in which they stand who thus contemn the 
almighty and jealous God; but I cannot. I have 
not the heart to do it. It is a mad^ a tremendous 
peril, — nothing less, as Job said, than '^stretching 
out the hand against God, and strengthening him- 
self against the Almighty ; running upon the thick 
bosses of Jehovah's buckler.'' But another thought 
absorbs me. It is the exceeding shamefulness of 
such ingratitude. This is one of the offences which 
men agree to visit with inextinguishable blame. 
Nothing is more universally hated, nothing does so- 
ciety more surely avenge, than ingratitude to human 
benefactors. Yet in this very sin, — only towards 
God, the perfect and glorious Friend, instead of 
man, — in this very sin live all the impenitent ! 

But let Jehovah present his own plea. '' Hear, 
heavens, and give ear, earth : for the Lord hath 
spoken ; I have nourished and brought up children, 
and they have rebelled against me ! Ah sinful na- 
tion, a people laden with iniquity ! They have for- 



DESPISEST THOU? 87 



saken Jehovah, they have provoked the Holy One 
of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward/' 
"Cast away from you all your transgressions; and 
make you a new heart and a new spirit : for why 
will ye die, house of Israel? For I have no 
pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the 
Lord Grod : wherefore turn and live/^ 

And thus, once more, dear friends, God has pleaded 
his own cause with you. Once more, in his wonder- 
ful forbearance, he stands before you and you reason 
together. His goodness leadeth to repentance : that 
is the whole stress and purpose of it. Shall it pre- 
vail? Consider well, consider solemnly, how you 
will treat this kind appeal, so hard to make, so easy 
to reject. It may be Grod's last appeal. Word of 
grace may never, never enter your ear again. Will 
you respect him in his majesty and awfulness bent 
down to mercy for your sake ? Will you believe his 
gracious promises and yield him your heart ? Shall 
you be found this day, this night, at the foot of the 
cross? Or ^^despisest thou the riches of his good- 
ness and forbearance and longsuffering V^ Despisest 
thou? 



HARDENING THE HEART. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HARDENING THE HEART. 

There is something very startling to a thought- 
ful reader of the book of Proverbs in the sudden 
way in which, among prudent maxims and wise say- 
ings of all sorts, you come right upon a text speak- 
ing the most purely religious truths in almost the 
same tone. The danger of being security for one's 
friend, the danger of hearkening to the voice of 
licentious temptation, and the danger of hardening 
the heart against God's warnings, are pointed out in 
the same terse and pungent language, and often in 
the same paragraph and the same strain. It can 
hardly fail of suggesting to such a reader that it is 
the same wisdom that is counselling us about all 
these things, the same experience that recognises 
the mischief of all these follies, and that they com- 
mend themselves to us from the same authority. 

So surely, therefore, as the merchant and man of 
business will confess the rightness of the prudential 
maxims, and the profoundest moralist admire these 
precepts of virtue, so surely will man' s heart — either 
when it has learned spiritual wisdom or when it has 



HARDENING THE HEART. 89 



been taught by a terrible experience — own the truth 
of this solemn warning : — ^' He that, being often re- 
proved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be de- 
stroyed, and that without remedy :^^ Prov. xxix. 1. 
The sinner who perseveres in his impenitence, though 
faithfully warned, will at last be cut off at once and 
forever. 

How are sinners reproved ? Whatever calls them 
to serious thought about their souls and religion 
deserves that name. Their very position as offend- 
ers against God's law makes every thing a reproof 
which shows them their true condition, and the 
uroent necessity of a new character and nature. 

Sinners are reproved by their own consciences. 
Nothing is a greater proof of God's goodness than 
this : — that in the very heart of man's corruption he 
has planted such a thing as conscience, and given 
it such a tough, enduring life. Man does sometimes 
bury it so deep that its voice is silenced for a while ; 
he accustoms it to such violence that its power of 
feeling seems destroyed : but only for a time. Her 
thunders ^^ sometimes sleep and sometimes roar.'' 

They are often wakened by the thought of some 
particular sin. You show some levity in the house 
of God : perhaps, while Christians are partaking of 
the Lord's supper, you talk, or smile, or encourage 



90 HARDENING THE HEART. 



some evil thouglit. All at once it flashes on you, 
what an aggravated offence this is ; how your €rod 
is employing with you the very strongest^ tenderest, 
sacredest means of grace, and you are actually 
defying them all ; that these are your Saviour's gifts, 
and you are pouring contempt upon them all ; that 
this is the chosen opportunity of the Holy Spirit, 
and you are setting him at nought. Conscience 
urges these thoughts upon you, and you confess that 
you are guilty. 

Or perhaps it is some passion that has suddenly 
broken through the restraints with which you com- 
monly curb it. A parent, a friend, a child, a ser- 
vant, has crossed your will in some way, and you do 
some passionate thing, speak violently, perhaps pro- 
fanely. Again you are convicted by your own con- 
science : you have sinned against God. 

In some such way conscience is often roused to 
reprove the sinner; and, having begun to speak, it 
launches out from that particular charge, reminds 
you of one sin after another, tells you of those vows 
you have made and broken, of the many prayers 
offered for you, of the great privileges you enjoy; 
accuses you of ingratitude and ungodliness. 

But there is another way. There often springs 
up in the sinner's breast a vague disquietude, a 
discontent with himself and all that he does and is. 
He almost unconsciously finds fault with himself, 



HARDENING THE HEART. 91 



and especially with those parts of his character 
which men praise. When they talk of his wit^ his 
generosity, his good temper^ his social virtues of 
various kinds, it awakens a bitterness and a self-dis- 
gust that surprises himself. His pleasures seem to 
have worn out. He wonders no more at the mag- 
nificence and wisdom of the world, but at its folly, 
its emptiness, its misery. He marvels at the change 
in himself, and doubts whereto it will grow. Per- 
haps it is some strange sickness coming on ? Perhaps 
the first stealthy approach of insanity? No, poor 
sinner, it is conscience ; it is the half-enlightened, 
deep-seated sense of sin growing on you, stripping 
away the painted trappings of life and showing you 
the godless heart that lies behind your graces and 
virtues and poisons them all. Your conscience is 
reproving you. 

Sinners are reproved by preaching. This is 
sometimes the reason why faithful ministers are un- 
popular: they do not ^^ comfort^' sinners. God has 
promised to bless the plain and patient speaking of 
his truth to men : — '' It has pleased God by the fool- 
ishness of preaching to save them that believe. ^^ He 
does bless it. Many who have been cherishing some 
false excuse in their hearts have seen it exposed 
and have been undeceived in the courts of the 
Lord^s house. Many who have wandered in dark- 
ness, convicted of sin and unable to find a Saviour, 



92 HARDENING THE HEART. 



have been taught by their pastor and have there found 
the Lord Jesus mighty to save. 

So^ alsO; sinners are often reproved from the pulpit. 
Some earnest word reaches their consciences; some- 
thing that is said fits their case or describes their sin. 
For the faithful minister preaches from the Bible, 
and the Bible is the word of Him who '^ search eth 
the hearts -^ thus, all the various forms of impeni- 
tence and unbelief are spoken of there, and sooner 
or later each man's wound will be touched. He 
may try to shake it off; he may succeed in that at- 
tempt: but he has been ^^reproved.^^ Nothing can 
alter or blot out that fact. Oh, my reader, years of 
remorse, an eternity of anguish, cannot change it ! 

Sinners are often reproved by faithful words in 
private. Not as often as they should be : there is 
a sad and sinful cowardice in Christians about this 
duty. I know they feel their weakness and igno- 
rance in religious matters, but what right have 
they to be weak and ignorant here ? They,— the 
children of a king, dwelling in his family, furnished 
with his word, admitted at a moment's notice into 
his presence to get wisdom or help, — they unable to 
advise or instruct in heavenly things ? Shame on 
them ! How dare they neglect their Bibles and 
leave this most important of all arts unstudied and 
unknown, to be better farmers, or merchants, or poll 
ticians ? 



HARDENING THE HEART. 93 



God will bring them iuto judgment for this sin. 
He does. Their children and their companions 
grow up in hopeless ignorance of the way of salva- 
tion and '^perish for lack of knowledge.'^ Even 
when they are taught in other ways, as from the 
pulpit or in the Sunday-school; they remain unim- 
pressed because of the indifference and silence about 
personal religion at home. There is no excuse for 
any man or woman^who has mind enough to manage 
common worldly affairs^ being unable to point a 
dying sinner to the cross. This is not man's 
opinion. It is God's word : — ^^Let him that heareth 
say^ Come !'' 

But to return. Sinners are at times thus re- 
proved. Perhaps their pastor himself has sought 
them out, or taken a favourable opportunity as it 
occurred, and affectionately warned them of their 
danger. He has told them, in private as well as 
from the pulpit, the wickedness of being without 
God and without faith in Jesus Christ. He has 
prayed them to be reconciled to God and to flee 
from the wrath to come. He has told them of a 
Saviour's love, of his readiness to forgive, and of the 
awful peril of delay. He has sought to win their 
confidence, that they might frankly tell him their 
difficulties and doubts. If in any way he could 
wisely do it, he has kneeled with them in prayer, 
that they might come to pray. He has pleaded for 



94 HARDENING THE HEART. 



them in secret with agony of earnestness and groan- 
ings that cannot be uttered. 

Or perhaps some other friend, driven on by 
anxiety for them and pity for their immortal souls, 
has broken through the natural reserve we feel, and 
the restraints of false shame, and done a Christianas 
duty by them, as did that faithful old man who 
rode some miles to an infidel's house to tell him he 
was ^^ greatly concerned for his salvation,^ ^ though 
he could tell him nothing more; and Grod blessed 
that simple word and saved that soul. The kind 
accent reaches the heart or the conscience, and 
again the sinner is ^^reproved.^^ 

He is often reproved by Providence. Sometimes 
an escape from impending trouble of some kind 
awakens the sense of God's goodness, and that leads 
him to thought. He remembers how great care 
he has needed and received, how many dangers he 
has passed through in safety, how many have fallen 
and been destroyed where he has lived, and lived 
in sin. He considers that a wise God cannot have 
thus regarded and preserved him without a purpose ] 
that a holy and unerring eye is on him, which notes 
how he receives these favours and how he lives after 
them, that a strict account of them all will be 
exacted at the last. God's goodness thus reproves 
him. 

But often it is God's severity that gives the 



HARDENING THE HEART. 95 



needed reproof. Thrown down^ and held down^ 
upon a bed of pain, and thus reminded of Grod's 
anger, he is silently confronted with death. He 
sees the end of his probation perhaps draw very 
near; he can count upon his fingers the days, the 
hours, that probably remain to him of life. He 
looks back upon the opportunities he had in health, 
remembers how carelessly he used them as they 
fled, — how like a spendthrift he played with his 
wealth till it slipped from his hand into th^ all- 
devouring gulf. Conscience, that slept before, thun- 
ders now, and his heart trembles. 

Often men's plans are broken up and their labours 
made fruitless by some calamity. A whole year's 
toil is wasted by a single storm, — so much of life 
and strength and hope thrown away ! A ship is 
wrecked; the price of some article suddenly rises 
or falls; a trusted agent deceives and robs him. 
He is thus reminded that God will not always chide 
gently and speak affectionately; that he is not 
always indulgent and mild. Again the danger 
of sin stands out before him; the long-neglected 
warning is listened to at last; he is reproved 
for sin. 

Or his hand is taken by an unseen and terrible 
Being and he is led to the grave's edge to see some 
dear one ^^ buried out of his sight.'' The light of 
his home is put out, — quenched in tears or blood; 



96 HARDENING THE HEART. 



some face and voice^ that was as constant there as 
sunshine in the heavens^ is gone forever. Through 
that narrow gate all his treasures are carried — 
whither ? He himself must lie down thus in his turn 
and be borne away — where ? Shall he go blind- 
fold; struggling against the Almighty^ frenzied with 
terror^ screaming out mingled blasphemy and prayer ? 
Or shall he smile at his Father's word, commit his 
soul to his Father's keeping, and pass gently and 
sweetly to his Father's home ? Thus also is the 
sinner reproved. 

It is all-important to remember that, though re- 
proof comes to the sinner in these different ways, 
there is but one great Reprover in them all, — the 
Holy Spirit. All the events of life would fail to 
touch man's heart or arouse his con science, if that 
patient and mighty Friend were not at hand to urge 
the arrow through his armour into the shrinking 
flesh. However it come, therefore, it is his reproof 
men regard and his they despise. 

How do men thus reproved harden their necks? 
The figure is a very natural and graphic one to ex- 
press the stiffening one's self to resist an influence 
to which he ought to bend. The reproofs of the 
Holy Spirit ought to bring us low before the mercy- 
seat, kneeling in humble prayer, our eyes cast down 
in self-accusation and shame, ready to be rebuked 
and chastened and led according to his will. He 



HARDENING THE HEART. 97 



who for any reason or in any way does not take 
that attitude before him is hardening his neck. 

Many reject God's mercy by simple delay. They 
never think enough about it to have a definite plan 
for or against religion; they merely admit its im- 
portance and intend to seek it at some time. And 
as it presses on them disagreeably, giving pain and 
shame and blunting the pleasures of life, they in- 
stinctively remit it to that ^^some time'^ when it 
shall prove a pleasant task to repent and return unto 
the Lord, — their Grod ! Do you tell them they are 
wicked ? They know it ; and they mean to be better. 
That Grod is angry with them ? Yes ; but they will 
seek the Saviour. That life is precarious ? No 
doubt; but long before death approaches they ex- 
pect to be Christians. That their sin is increasing 
every day ? But it would be impious to limit the 
mercy of God. 

They have no other plan or intention about it than 
to stave off what is unpleasant now, — to put off the 
evil day. Ah^ how different from God's silent 
steadfastness ! He hath ajypointed a day wherein 
to judge the world; and, though they break their 
promises, be sure he will keep his ! 

Such delays are more common than men will ven- 
ture to believe. There is a sea of rebellion in every 
impenitent heart that may swell with fury and cast 
up mire and dirt any hour. It is never safe to think 



HARDENING THE HEART. 



tbat any sin is impossible to any sinner. Only let 
the question of submission or rebellion fairly come 
before tbem, and the most amiable and kind are 
ready to despise reproof^ to harden their neck^ and 
to grieve away the Holy Spirit. 

The result of this foolish and wicked delay is 
not merely that it breaks the power of an appeal 
when it is made, but that it accustoms the ear and 
the heart to hear it without action and soon without 
feeling. The soul is dead in sins, and the Holy 
Spirit is grieved away. 

Another way of hardening the neck is by excuses : 
sometimes excuses for not repenting now, sometimes 
for not doing it at all. Perhaps the sinner has some 
pleasure in view which will certainly distract his 
thoughts if he engages in it ; and he feels that it 
would be mockery to enter on the search for reli- 
gion now and ask God's blessing on it when he in- 
tends to frustrate it all by this coming self-indul- 
gence. It would be a mockery; but, instead of con- 
cluding that therefore the dangerous pleasure must 
be given up, the hardener of his heart puts off 
religion ! 

It is almost impossible to believe beforehand that 
a human heart can be so daring in its wilfulness : 
yet it is even so. It is not rare to hear from the 
lips of the young language like this : — ^' It is too 
hard to ask me to give up my pleasures now : my 



HARDENING THE HEART. 99 



mind is made up to taste them first ; afterwards I 
will try religion. I know the risk I run; I know 
the sin I commit; but I am determined. ^^ I saw a 
younp: friend's head bent down once in sorrow for 
her sins, almost persuaded to be a Christian. She 
resolved at last to attend the next week's ball and 
to postpone religion till that was over. That is 
several years ago; and she walks in unbelief and 
darkness still. 

Another has business engagements : he has just 
settled in life, or is just about to do so; he has 
bought some property that must be closely looked 
after ; he is in temporary difficulty and must fight 
his way through ; and he prays us to have him ex- 
cused. Another is young; he pleads his warm 
blood, the novelty and sweetness of life's pleasures, 
the long life before him making the sacrifice so 
great; we must wait — why do I say ^^we'' ? God 
must wait — till the cross is worn a little lighter and 
sinful life is a little less delightful; while his 
neighbour pleads middle age and business just as 
urgently as he pleads youth and pleasure. So sick- 
ness and health, adversity, prosperity, any thing, 
notliing^ is reason enough for not seeking a Saviour 
now. 

The other class of excuses is really, though half- 
unconsciously, designed to break the force of re- 
ligious obligation altogether. One sinner protests, 



100 HARDENING THE HEART. 



^^I cannot feel; my feelings are not under my own 
control/^ Of course, this is no excuse at all, unless 
it means, ^^The impossibility is of such a kind as 
exonerates me from all blame for not feeling; you 
ought not to make such an appeal to me :'^ other- 
wise it is not an excuse, but a confession. Another, 
in the same strain, declares he cannot repent; a 
third reminds us that only the Holy Spirit can 
change his heart. Now, these excuses, though each 
contains a truth, are not believed hy those who use 
them. If they really felt that they could not save 
themselves but must seek help from One who is 
mighty to save, their tone would be very different. 
They only give it that half-belief which stills their 
uneasy consciences, breaks the force of the heavenly 
reproof, and grieves away the Holy Spirit. 

But there are far more subtle ways of gaining the 
same end than these. One of them is to establish 
a righteousness of our own. The sinner, in this 
case, admits his past sin and the need of repentance 
and the truth and beauty of the gospel; but there 
lies hidden in him a secret hope and purpose to be 
good enough to he saved. He will so abound in 
prayers and tears, in reading of the Bible and con- 
sistent life, in good words and works and thoughts, 
that his sins and his iniquities shall be remembered 
no more. Now, when it is considered how deeply 
vile man's heart is, how every fibre of his moral 



HARDENING THE HEART. 101 



nature is stained black before God^ how be cannot 
govern his thoughts and feelings or change the 
character of one action^ can any thing look more 
fruitless, obstinate and blind, than this self-right- 
eousness ? Yet many a sinner contrives to live in 
that very state and to mislead conscience by that 
very device till his convictions pass aw^ay. He 
has hardened his neck and grieved away the Holy 
Spirit. 

When every other device has failed, it remains to 
make a false profession. Not false in the sense of 
a gross hypocrisy to deceive men, but false in this 
sense : — that it is self-deceiving, insincere, intended 
by a wicked heart to prevent repentance; so false 
that temptation, danger, or the approach of death, 
suffices to expose the cheat and leave the soul in 
absolute despair. 

Men go through an imitation of Christian ex- 
perience; willingly mistake one feeling and state of 
mind for another; persuade themselves into a hope 
that the work is done when it is hardly begun; 
reconcile themselves to their condition by giving it 
a name which does not belong to it ; thank Grod for a 
salvation they may never, never taste ! All because 
a wicked heart turns them aside; because they have 
not prayed earnestly and humbly as they ought for 
help from on high; because they have been more 
anxious to escape pain and punishment than sin. 



102 HARDENING THE HEART. 



NoW; flattering themselves that the danger is past, 
they urge their doubting, fearful, self-accusing spirits 
to be at ease, and call the effort — faith. They often 
complete the delusion by making a public profession ; 
silence all questions by that fact; go down to the 
grave with all their impenitence and mockery of 
God upon their heads ! Thus, also, many a sinner, 
having been often reproved, hardeneth his neck and 
grieves away the Holy Spirit.* 

^*He that being often reproved hardeneth his 
neck shall suddenly he destroyed.^' It is not ne- 
cessary to this sudden destruction that a man should 
be struck down in the bloom of his youth or the 
vigour of health and manhood by some swift judg- 
ment, as by a thunderbolt. It is enough if he is so 
taken away as to cut off all hope of escape, all chance 
of forgiveness. It is enough if the unconquered pride 
of his heart wakes up and he refuses to confess his 
fatal error or to seek pardon from God. It is enough 
if the half-uttered prayer dies on his palsied lips, — 
palsied with terror or despair. It is enough if, 
while the failing voice repeats its aimless cry for, 
^^mercy,'^ reason be unseated by pain and fear, — 
driven mad by the growing thunder of the Judg- 

':• '^Then I saw, and behold, there was a way back to hell, 
even from the gate of heaven." — Bunyan. 



HARDENING THE HEART. 102 



ment. His agony anticipates the coming of tlie Son 
of man; he hears the awful sentence^ ^^ Depart!'' and 
goes down ''to his place." 

Of how many that have sat with us in God's 
house is this the story! They too were more or 
less faithfully ''reproved.'' The pulpit was not 
silent about their guilt; friends warned them; God 
spoke to them. But they thought they had time 
enough; that we were needlessly alarmed^ perhaps 
officious; that they might safely wait a little — ^just 
a little — longer. So they hardened their necks. 

Where are they now ? Go ask the monuments 
that dare speak only of the past ! Ask that secret 
witness in your heart that throbs with a dull and 
sickening pain at the very question ! Oh that the 
people were wise ! — that they understood this ! — that 
they would consider their latter end ! 

It is added that this sudden destruction shall also 
be "without remedy.'^ It is only one of many ex- 
press declarations that the punishment of the wicked 
shall he eternal. If it would be "better for a man 
that he had never been born'^ than to fall into that 
perdition, — if it is to be an "everlasting destruc- 
tion," — if it is to endure as long as the salvation of 
God's people endures, even "forever and ever," 
without hope and without remedy, — must it not be 
eternal ? 



104: HARDENING THE HEART. 



Can there be a more suicidal course than to palter 
with these terms and pare them down in the vain 
hope that some distant age will bring impunity for 
sin ? My dear reader^ sin itself is the death you 
have to dread. When you have gone to a world 
where the blood of Christ does not cleanse from sin, 
nor God's Spirit strive with, hardened man, nor a 
Saviour's intercessions rise, the sin will be incurable 
and the death eternal. 

In conclusion, observe that, by telling us what 
is so dangerous, the Scripture also tells us what is 
safe. There is a posture of impenitent man, as 
we have seen, which invites destruction. It is 
standing before a jealous God with stiff neck and 
hardened heart; continuing life's plans and plea- 
sures in utter disregard of him; breaking his law, 
slighting his gospel, setting at nought his Son, re- 
sisting his Holy Spirit. These four things are done 
by every sinner who does not regard reproofs and 
turn unto the Lord. 

Can you imagine any thing more borrible than 
this attitude ? This puny creature of a day practi- 
cally defying the Almighty and braving his fiercest 
wrath; going on with his little affairs as though no- 
thing were the matter ; bidding bis frightened heart 
be still ; keeping his place of guilt, — though God 



HARDENING THE HEART. 105 



strike down sinners at his right hand and his left — 
not for principle's sake, but in sheer wilfulness 
and hardness; putting aside the great Jehovah 
himself, when (as it were) he thrusts himself on him 
to warn and save; putting him aside with firm or 
petulant hand, and, without so much as a trembling 
voice, bidding him go his way for this time I 

But there is an attitude to which God invites us. 
It is the softened heart, the listening ear, the child- 
like relenting after disobedience and passion ; it is 
yearning for a Father's love ; it is listening for his 
gracious word ; it is abandoning every thing that 
separates us from him ; it is owning our utter un- 
worthiness and asking pardon for Jesus' sake. 
lost sinner, when tliat hand is held out to you 
for reconciliation, when that eye is looking wistfully 
in your face to see it soften and weep, when^ that 
ear is listening for one word of prayer, can you deny 
him ? Will you harden your heart and refuse his 
love ? 

Yet once more has he called you; you have been 
reproved once more. You may forget it, but God 
never will ! — never 1 Life may run smoothly away 
to its end; warning and fear may be spared you 
henceforth; under some strong delusion you may 
even close your eyes in death in apparent peace. 
But God has not forgotten or changed or relented : 



106 HARDENING THE HEART. 



one single, unalterable word will boom out of the 
darkness and all will be over. Oh, eternity! 
eternity! The blackness of darkness forever! 
^^ Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched V^ 

My friend, it is yet called To-day. '' To-day, 

IF YE WILL HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT YOUR 
HEART ^' 



THE END. 



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